TheFirst French Empire[5] orFrench Empire (French:Empire français;Latin:Imperium Francicum), also known asNapoleonic France, was the empire ruled byNapoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much ofcontinental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from 18 May 1804 to 6 April 1814 and again briefly from 20 March 1815 to 7 July 1815, when Napoleon was exiled toSt. Helena.[6]
A series of wars, known collectively as theNapoleonic Wars, extended French influence to much of Western Europe and into Poland. At its height in 1812, the French Empire had130 departments, a population over 44 million people, ruled over 90 million subjects throughout Europe and in the overseas colonies, maintained an extensive military presence inGermany,Italy,Spain, andPoland, and counted Austria and Prussia as nominal allies.[4] Early French victories exported many ideological features of the Revolution throughout Europe: the introduction of theNapoleonic Code throughout the continent increased legal equality, established jury systems and legalised divorce, andseigneurial dues and seigneurial justice were abolished, as werearistocratic privileges in all places except Poland.[10] France's defeat in 1814 (and then again in 1815), marked the end of the First French Empire and the beginning of theBourbon Restoration.
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte was confronted byEmmanuel Joseph Sieyès—one of fiveDirectors constituting the executive branch of the French government—who sought his support for acoup d'état to overthrow theConstitution of the Year III. The plot included Bonaparte's brotherLucien, then serving as speaker of theCouncil of Five Hundred,Roger Ducos, another Director, andCharles Maurice de Talleyrand. On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire VIII under theFrench Republican Calendar) and the following day, troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte seized control. They dispersed the legislative councils, leaving arump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government. Although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, theConsulate, he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte, who drafted theConstitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul. He thus became the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by theConstitution of the Year X, which made him First Consul for life.
TheBattle of Marengo (14 June 1800) inaugurated the political idea that was to continue its development until Napoleon'sRussian campaign. ThePeace of Amiens, which cost him control ofEgypt, was a temporary truce. He gradually extended his authority in Italy by annexing thePiedmont and by acquiringGenoa,Parma, Tuscany, andNaples, and added this Italian territory to theCisalpine Republic. Then he laid siege to the Roman state and initiated theConcordat of 1801 to control the material claims of thePope. When he recognised his error of raising the authority of the Pope from that of a figurehead, Napoleon produced theArticles Organiques (1802) with the goal of becoming the legal protector of the papacy, likeCharlemagne. To conceal his plans before their actual execution, he aroused French colonial aspirations against Britain and the memory of the 1763Treaty of Paris, exacerbating British envy of France, whose borders now extended to theRhine and beyond, toHanover, Hamburg, andCuxhaven. Napoleon would have ruling elites from a fusion of the new bourgeoisie and the old aristocracy.[11]
On 12 May 1802, the FrenchTribunat voted unanimously, with the exception ofLazare Carnot, in favour of the Life Consulship for the leader of France.[12] This action was confirmed by theCorps Législatif. A generalplebiscite followed thereafter resulting in 3,653,600 votes aye and 8,272 votes nay.[13] On 2 August 1802 (14 Thermidor, An X), Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Consul for life.
Imperial standard of Napoleon I
Pro-revolutionary sentiment swept through Germany aided by the "Recess of 1803", which broughtBavaria,Württemberg, andBaden to France's side.William Pitt the Younger, back in power over Britain, appealed once more for an Anglo-Austro-Russian coalition against Napoleon to stop the ideals of revolutionary France from spreading.
Met with opposition, Napoleon would not tolerate any neutral power. On 6 August 1806 theHabsburgs abdicated their title ofHoly Roman Emperor in order to prevent Napoleon from becoming the next Emperor, ending a political power which had endured for over a thousand years. Prussia had been offered the territory ofHanover to stay out of the Third Coalition. With the diplomatic situation changing, Napoleon offered Great Britain the province as part of a peace proposal. To this, combined with growing tensions in Germany over French hegemony, Prussia responded by forming an alliance with Russia and sending troops into Bavaria on 1 October 1806. During theWar of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon destroyed the Prussian armies atJena and Auerstedt. Successive victories atEylau andFriedland against the Russians finally ruinedFrederick the Great's formerly mighty kingdom, obliging Russia and Prussia to make peace with France atTilsit.
TheTreaties of Tilsit ended the war between Russia and France and began an alliance between the two empires that held as much power as the rest of Europe. The two empires secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes. France pledged to aid Russia against theOttoman Empire, while Russia agreed to join theContinental System against Britain. Russia also agreed to recognize theConfederation of the Rhine, as agreed on by the treaty.[14] Napoleon also forced Alexander to enter theAnglo-Russian War and to instigate theFinnish War against Sweden in order to force Sweden to join the Continental System.
More specifically, Alexander agreed to evacuateWallachia andMoldavia, which had been occupied by Russian forces as part of theRusso-Turkish War. TheIonian Islands andCattaro, which had been captured by Russian admiralsFyodor Ushakov andDmitry Senyavin, were to be handed over to the French. In recompense, Napoleon guaranteed the sovereignty of theDuchy of Oldenburg and several other small states ruled by the Russian emperor's German relatives.
The treaty removed about half of Prussia's territory:Cottbus was given to Saxony, the left bank of theElbe was awarded to the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia,Białystok was given to Russia, and the rest of the Polish lands in Prussian possession were set up as theDuchy of Warsaw. Prussia was ordered to reduce its army to 40,000 men and to pay an indemnity of 100,000,000 francs. Observers in Prussia viewed the treaty as unfair and as a national humiliation.
Talleyrand had advised Napoleon to pursue milder terms; the treaties marked an important stage in his estrangement from the emperor. After Tilsit, instead of trying to reconcile Europe, as Talleyrand had advised, Napoleon wanted to defeat Britain and complete his Italian dominion. To the coalition of the northern powers, he added the league of theBaltic and Mediterranean ports, and to the bombardment ofCopenhagen by theRoyal Navy he responded with a second decree of blockade, dated from Milan on 17 December 1807.
The application of the Concordat and the taking of Naples led to Napoleon's first struggles with the Pope, centred aroundPius VII renewing the theocratic affirmations ofPope Gregory VII. The emperor's Roman ambition was made more visible by the occupation of the Kingdom of Naples and of theMarches, and by the entry of GeneralSextius Alexandre François de Miollis into Rome; while GeneralJean-Andoche Junot invadedPortugal, Marshal Murattook control of formerly Roman Spain as Regent. Soon after, Napoleon had his brother, Joseph, crowned King of Spain and sent him there to take control.
Napoleon tried to succeed in theIberian Peninsula as he had done in Italy, in the Netherlands, and in Hesse. However, the exile of the Spanish Royal Family toBayonne, together with the enthroning of Joseph Bonaparte, turned the Spanish against Napoleon. After theDos de Mayo riots and subsequent reprisals, the Spanish government began an effective guerrilla campaign, under the oversight of localJuntas. The Iberian Peninsula became a war zone from the Pyrenees to the Straits of Gibraltar and saw theGrande Armée facing the remnants of the Spanish Army, as well as British and Portuguese forces. GeneralPierre Dupont capitulated atBailén to GeneralFrancisco Castaños, and Junot atCintra, Portugal to GeneralArthur Wellesley.
Spain used up the soldiers needed for Napoleon's other fields of battle, and they had to be replaced by conscripts. Spanish resistance affected Austria, and indicated the potential of national resistance. The provocations of Talleyrand and Britain strengthened the idea that the Austrians could emulate the Spanish. On 10 April 1809, Austria invaded France's ally, Bavaria. The campaign of 1809, however, would not be nearly as long and troublesome for France as the one in Spain and Portugal. Following a short and decisive action in Bavaria, Napoleon opened up the road to the Austrian capital ofVienna for a second time. AtAspern, Napoleon suffered his first serious tactical defeat, along with the death of MarshalJean Lannes, an able commander and dear friend of the emperor. The victory atWagram, however, forced Austria to sue for peace. TheTreaty of Schönbrunn, signed on 14 December 1809, resulted in the annexation of theIllyrian Provinces and recognised past French conquests.
The Pope was forcibly deported toSavona, and his domains were incorporated into the French Empire. The Senate's decision on 17 February 1810 created the title "King of Rome", and made Rome the capital of Italy. Between 1810 and 1812 Napoleon's divorce ofJoséphine, and his marriage withArchduchess Marie Louise of Austria, followed by the birth ofhis son, shed light upon his future policy. He gradually withdrew power from his siblings and concentrated his affection and ambition on his son, the guarantee of the continuance of his dynasty, marking the high point of the Empire.
Undermining forces, however, had already begun to impinge on the faults inherent in Napoleon's achievements. Britain, protected by the English Channel and its navy, was persistently active, and rebellion of both the governing and of the governed broke out everywhere. Napoleon, though he underrated it, soon felt his failure in coping with the Peninsular War. Men likeBaron von Stein,August von Hardenberg, andGerhard von Scharnhorst had begun secretly preparing Prussia's retaliation[citation needed].
The alliance arranged at Tilsit was seriously shaken by the Austrian marriage, the threat of Polish restoration to Russia, and the Continental System. The very persons whom he had placed in power were counteracting his plans. With many of his siblings and relations performing unsuccessfully or even betraying him, Napoleon found himself obliged to revoke their power.Caroline Bonaparte conspired against her brother and against her husband Murat; the hypochondriac Louis, now Dutch in his sympathies, found the supervision of the blockade taken from him, and also the defence of theScheldt, which he had refused to ensure. Jérôme Bonaparte lost control of the blockade on theNorth Sea shores[citation needed]. The very nature of things was against the new dynasties, as it had been against the old.
After national insurrections and family recriminations came treachery from Napoleon's ministers. Talleyrand betrayed his designs toKlemens von Metternich and suffered dismissal[citation needed].Joseph Fouché, corresponding with Austria in 1809 and 1810, entered into an understanding with Louis and also with Britain, whileLouis Antoine de Bourrienne was convicted of speculation. By consequence of the spirit of conquest Napoleon had aroused, many of his marshals and officials, having tasted victory, dreamed of sovereign power: MarshalJean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who had helped him to the Consulate, played Napoleon false to win the crown of Sweden[citation needed]. MarshalJean-de-Dieu Soult, like Murat, coveted the Spanish throne after that of Portugal, thus anticipating the treason of 1812.
The country itself, though flattered by conquests, was tired of self-sacrifice. The unpopularity ofconscription gradually turned many of Napoleon's subjects against him[citation needed]. Amidst profound silence from the press and the assemblies, a protest was raised against imperial power by the literary world, against the excommunicated sovereign by Catholicism, and against the author of the Continental Blockade by the discontented bourgeoisie, ruined by the crisis of 1811[citation needed]. Even as he lost his military principles, Napoleon maintained his gift for brilliance. HisSix Days' Campaign, which took place at the very end of theWar of the Sixth Coalition, is often regarded as his greatest display of leadership and military prowess. But by then it was the end (or "the finish"), and it was during the years before when various European states conspired against France. While Napoleon and his holdings idled and worsened, the rest of Europe agreed to avenge the revolutionary events of 1792.
Napoleon had hardly succeeded in putting down the revolt in Germany when the emperor of Russia himself headed a European insurrection against Napoleon. To put an end to this, ensure his own access to the Mediterranean, and exclude his chief rival, Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Despite his victorious advance, thetaking of Smolensk, the victory on theMoskva, and the entry into Moscow, he was defeated by the country and the climate, and by Alexander's refusal to make terms. After this came the terrible retreat in the harsh Russian winter, while all of Europe was turning against him. Pushed back, as he had been in Spain, from bastion to bastion, after the crossing of theBerezina, Napoleon had to fall back upon the frontiers of 1809, and then—having refused the peace offered to him by Austria at the Congress of Prague (4 June – 10 August 1813), from fear of losing Italy, where each of his victories had marked a stage in the accomplishment of his dream—on those of 1805, despite the victories atLützen andBautzen, and on those of 1802 after his disastrous defeat atLeipzig, when Bernadotte—now Crown Prince of Sweden—turned upon him, GeneralJean Moreau also joined the Allies, and longstanding allied states, such as Saxony and Bavaria, forsook him as well.
Following his retreat from Russia, Napoleon continued to retreat, this time from Germany. After the loss of Spain, reconquered by an Allied army led by theDuke of Wellington, the uprising in the Netherlands preliminary to the invasion, and themanifesto of Frankfurt (1 December 1813)[15] which proclaimed it, he was forced to fall back upon the frontiers of 1795; and was later driven further back upon those of 1792—despite the forcefulcampaign of 1814 against the invaders. Paris capitulated on 30 March 1814, and theDelenda Carthago, pronounced against Britain, was spoken of Napoleon. The empire briefly fell with Napoleon's abdication atFontainebleau on 11 April 1814.
After less than a year's exile on the island of Elba, Napoleon escaped to France with a thousand men and four cannons. KingLouis XVIII sent MarshalMichel Ney to arrest him. Upon meeting Ney's army, Napoleon dismounted and walked into firing range, saying "If one of you wishes to kill his emperor, here I am!" But instead of firing, the soldiers went to join Napoleon's side shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" Napoleon retook the throne temporarily in 1815, reviving the empire in the "Hundred Days". However, he was defeated by the Seventh Coalition at theBattle of Waterloo. He surrendered himself to the British and was exiled toSaint Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic, where he remained until his death in 1821. After the Hundred Days, theBourbon monarchy was restored, with Louis XVIII regaining the French throne, while the rest of Napoleon's conquests were disposed of in theCongress of Vienna.
Napoleon gained support by appealing to some common concerns of the French people. These included dislike of the emigrantnobility who had escaped persecution, fear by some of a restoration of theAncien Régime, a dislike and suspicion of foreign countries that had tried to reverse the Revolution—and a wish by Jacobins to extend France's revolutionary ideals.
Napoleon attracted power and imperial status and gathered support for his changes of French institutions, such as theConcordat of 1801 which confirmed the Catholic Church as the majority church of France and restored some of its civil status. Napoleon by this time, however, thought himself more of an enlightened despot. He preserved numerous social gains of the Revolution while suppressing political liberty. He admired efficiency and strength and hated feudalism, religious intolerance, and civil inequality.
Although a supporter of theradicalJacobins during the early days of the Revolution out of pragmatism, Napoleon became increasingly autocratic as his political career progressed, and once in power embraced certain aspects of both liberalism and authoritarianism—for example,public education, a generally liberal restructuring of the Frenchlegal system, and the emancipation of the Jews—while rejectingelectoral democracy andfreedom of the press.[citation needed]
France justified the spread of her empire as one of spreading her superior culture, bringing Enlightenment thinking and modern civilisation to what they viewed as backwards peoples. However this consequently led to attitudes of contempt against many of the nations France conquered and repression against recalcitrant populations.[16]
Map of the First French Empire in 1812, divided into 130départements, with the kingdoms ofSpain, Portugal,Italy andNaples, and theConfederation of the Rhine and Illyria and Dalmatia
Europe in 1812, with the French Empire at its peak before theRussian Campaign
^Domestically styled asFrench Republic (French:République française) until 1808: compare the French franc minted in 1808 and 1809, as well as Article 1 of the Constitution of the Year XII.[1]
^Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2006).The encyclopedia of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: a political, social, and military history, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 211.ISBN978-1851096466.Elected to the Tribunate in 1802, he [Carnot] showed himself increasingly alienated by Napoleon's personal ambition and voted against both the Consul for Life and the proclamation of the Empire. Unlike many former Revolutionaries, Carnot had little (...);Chandler, David G. (2000).Napoleon. Pen and Sword. p. 57.ISBN978-1473816565.
^Dwyer, Philip G. "Violence and the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars: massacre, conquest and the imperial enterprise." Journal of Genocide Research 15, no. 2 (2013): 117-131.
Fisher, Todd & Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2004).The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd.ISBN1-84176-831-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Rowe, Michael (2014). "Borders, War, and Nation-Building in Napoleon's Europe".Borderlands in World History, 1700–1914. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 143–165.ISBN978-1-137-32058-2.
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