Napoleon Bonaparte

Box 1: Early Life

• Sent to military schools at a young age

• Became a general by the age of 20, when the Revolution began

• Had a decades-long affair with a woman named Josephine, whose husband died at the guillotine.

Box 2: Consulate

• A military mastermind with a good opportunity

• The Directory asks for 3 Consuls

• Napoleon becomes the 1st Consul

• Declares himself Consul for Life

• Democracy?

Box 3: Expands France• Napoleon took

over: – Belgium,

Switzerland, Italy, parts of Germany and Poland

• Napoleon controlled (indirectly) – Spain, parts of

Germany, Austria..

• Pretty much all of Europe except Britain

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Box 4: The Napoleonic Code

• Specific laws about life– Marriage, divorce, property, wills, contracts, child-

support, government rules, dividing wealth, etc.

• Put limits on the price of certain things• Standard weights, measures and spellings• Napoleonic Code spread throughout Europe

and much of it remains today.

Box 5: Emperor Napoleon

• Declared himself emperor

• Democracy?• Took the crown from

the Pope, instead of the pope putting it on his head

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Box 6: Resistance from European Nationalists

• Napoleon improved the lives of many of the people in the countries he took over (eliminated monarchy, gave property/voting rights to all).

• But people were dissatisfied with having a foreign French person ruling over them. Nationalism and protests start to occur.

Box 7: Russia

• Russian monarchy stopped supporting Napoleon

• Napoleon decides to attack Russia

• Scorched earth policy + Russian winter = bad, bad times

• Over 300,000 died.

Box 8: The end of Napoleon?

• After his army was gone Napoleon tried to rally France but he was defeated and sent into exile on Island Elba off Italy.

• The Other nations of Europe began meeting to decided how to reorder the continent.

• But the French missed Napoleon, and he managed to escape back to France to raise an army.

Box 9: Louis XVIII Coronated

• A brother of King Louis XVI is crowned as King Louis XVIII, the next King of France (Louis XVII was the son who died during the revolution)

• Population is beat down after revolution, war, defeat, starvation… but still is unhappy about the old absolute monarchy coming back.

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Box 10: Waterloo and St Helena

• Napoleon was welcomed back and raised and army to meet the Great Powers who were coming to destroy him. He met the British under the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo in Belgium and was defeated.

Box 11: Exile and Death

• After his last stand at Waterloo, Napoleon is exiled to St. Helena

• He dies shortly thereafter, but left behind some interesting writings.

Box 12: Napoleon's Legacy

• Napoleon is one of the great stories of history, form nothing to everything, back to nothing.

• Both a betrayer and spreader of the revolution he was ambitious and a genius

• Millions died in his wars, but he spread the ideas of the French Revolution across the continent.

• Good? Evil? Crazy? Greedy? Smart? You decide.

Just for Fun: Napoleon Quotes

For each quote, decide (independently and silently) if you think it is a quote first attributed to Napoleon. When the teacher says so, shout either “YES!!” or “NO!!”

A true man hates no one.

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

We hold these truths to be evident that all men are

created equal.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

All the world’s a stage.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored

ribbon.

In your comp book, next to your cartoon notes, answer the following question using

the information you’ve learned today:

Was Napoleon a good man/good leader?