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The Port of Toulon
This was the First of Napoleons success. The British where talking advantage of the political situation in France and where trying to expand. They had captured and controlled Toulon for some time before Napoleon got there. The city was vulnerable because Jacobins where hiding there and the National Assembly did not like them mostly the sans-culottes. It turned into a little bit of a siege lasting 4 months. -
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Napoleon in the Military
These four years between 1793, and 1796 are very important to Napoleon coming to power. He kept achieving win after win defining France and keeping peace gaining him legislative support and popular support. -
Royalists in Paris
Napoleon was a no nonsense type of man. The basic gist of what happen was a mob of loyalists was trying to regain power. However Napoleon was called and he shot cannons into the crowds forcing them to disperse. He was greatly outnumbered 6 to 1 but he defatted them in two hours. The event is officially known as 13 Vendémiaire. He was rewarded by now being in charge of defending The French interior. -
Italy
The was Napoleons last main step to getting military power. He started a campaign through Italy gaining new territory for France. He also wanted to force Austria out of Italy. His situation was bad since the army had almost no supplies or tactics. He came up with a brilliant plan to strike fast and raid the countryside for supplies. This worked exactly allowing the men to stay supplied while also moving fast through Italy preventing a long conflict. By 1799 most of Italy was conquered. -
Setbacks In Egypt
After having so much momentum in Italy Napoleon decided to go to Egypt. This was initially a good strategic play but did not work out well. The main goal was to protect Frances trade routes and to study the area for science. This was a good thing since it led to the discovery of the Roseate Stone. The Battle of the nile was where Napoleon lost. It was a sea battle that he was not ready for. He kept the lost quiet went back to France and blamed François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers. -
Coup d'état
When Napoleon got back from Egypt. He noticed the power structure failing with many people losing faith in the current government and many fearing its replacement with the monarchy. So Napoleon seized some political power. He started a coup forcing the legislature to give him control of the government. Afraid of death they did and Napoleon became a dictator setting up his new government. The people where okay with this because they liked him and wanted stability. -
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Growing Nationalism
Napoleon did a lot of bad things but he also did good. One good thing he did for France was give it an identify. Before France was very corrupt because of the Monarchy. The kings before him and the reform leaders broke France. The people where confused but Napoleon got French Citizens to be proud of their country. This brought French Citizens and the people they conquered together. However it also led Napoleon to want to keep on trying to dominate Europe. -
The Bank of France
Napoleon did not only fight wars. He also worked on infrastructure. He first wanted to make France strong internally then make it bigger with wars. The first step was to fix the economy he did this by making the Bank of France and making an extremely better tax system. This fixed the basic revolutionary problems and made France strong. -
The Americas
Napoleon wanted to start an empire. At first he wanted to do it in the America because he thought it would easier. However after a civil war in Saint Domingue (Hati) he gave up hope. This was because the force he sent to crush the rebellion failed. It started with slaves wanting freedom. He wanted to keep the territory since it was making money through sugar. This led him to sell the Louisiana Territory and work on taking control of Europe. -
The French Empire
After Napoleon took control he wanted to involved the citizens. He sent out a vote asking if he should make France an Empire. This would make him the emperor and makes his kids emperors. The people voted yes so Napoleon did it. He invited the Pope to Crown him. However in a surprising turn of events at the last second he crowned himself. This told the world no one gave him power he had it. It happen at Notre-Dame and made him the first emperor. This allowed him to stabilize France. -
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The Napoleonic Wars
To Summarize these wars where Napoleons way of gaining control of Europe. He started wars with almost every country and made France the dominant power in Europe. This worked but made England start alliance and also proved how ineffective France's navel combat was since they kept losing to England. -
The Peninsular war
http://www.peninsularwar.org/penwar_e.htm
This link is very good in explaining what happen during the war. The one thing it did not mention was that the war started because of Continental System. Basically both sides wanted money. It also failed to mention how many innocent Spanish citizens where killed. -
The Russian Campaign
This was where a lot started to go wrong for Napoleon. The entire campaign was a disaster from the start. Many troops deserted because they had no loyalty to Napoleon and the conditions were very harsh. The Russian Tsar did not attack the French army. He simply burned the landscape and let them march to Moscow un-challenged.Just left the French soldiers demoralized and non supplied. This defeat of the French showed that Napoleon was vulnerable. -
Napoleon's defeat
With Napoleon's defeat in Russia. Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain Allied themselves. Leipzig was the first military attack by the allies. It was a complete defeat for Napoleon. After that the Allies marched into Paris and made Napoleon surrender. As part of the surrender Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. This is a good video explaining Leipzig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oh3lUYxKqI -
The 100 Days
About a year into Napoleon's Exile. A ship came to the island and rescued Napoleon and some of his supporters. He then made his way back into France and divided the people. The current King Louis XVIII fled to Belgium. Many were happy to see him because of the reforms he made. They were also afraid of ways returning to the old order since the King was not very good. However many were also not happy to see him because of the war he dragged them through and how long it lasted. -
The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was Napoleon's last major offensive. He lost the battle but both sides suffered heavy casualties. He evaded his captors for a couple of days after the battle ended. The loss of this battle marked the end of the hundred days and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. -
Vienna Congress
Although the Napoleonic wars were a failure. It proved that monarchs weren't safe and that was one of the lasting effects. One of the immediate effects on France was the monarchy was restored and it became much smaller. -
Napoleon's Death
After Napoleon was captured he was sent to an island in the South Pacific called Saint Helena. He died on this island at the age of 51 his cause of death is unknown.
