Name: Class: Napoleon Bonaparte Revolutionary or Tyrant? By Mike Kubic 2016 Mike Kubic is a former correspondent of Newsweek magazine. In the turmoil following the French Revolution, a low-ranking noble and military general rose to power, eventually becoming a major figure in early modern European history. This passage discusses the life and legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French dictator and emperor. As you read, take notes on Napoleon’s actions, motivations, and mistakes—and how these pieces contribute to his lasting legacy. [1] Napoleon was a towering phenomenon, a prolific1 genius who two centuries ago dominated Europe and changed its history. He was a military paragon, a natural-born warrior and a ruthless conqueror bent on controlling ever more nations and territory. He was a brilliant politician who changed seamlessly from a leftist2 revolutionary to an autocrat.3 And most astonishingly, he was a cerebral4 author of liberal political reforms and lasting guidelines for civic progress and decency. Historians have written scores of books about Napoleon, but to this day they don’t agree on what manner of man he was, and what was his legacy. Rise to Power "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" by Jacques-Louis David is in the There is no question about Napoleon’s public domain. overwhelming, single-minded, and for a time triumphant drive to expand his power and rule all of Europe. He set out on that quest already as a young lieutenant in the French Army when, following the 1792 fall of the French monarchy,5 he left his native Corsica6 and moved to Paris. 1. Prolific (adjective): productive or creative; present in large numbers or quantities 2. A “leftist” is someone who supports the political views or policies on the left (of the left-right spectrum, in which the left represents more liberal views and the right is more conservative). 3. Autocrat (noun): a ruler with absolute power 4. Cerebral (adjective): intellectual rather than emotional or physical 5. During the French Revolution, there was great contempt for the French nobility, particularly against King Louis XVI and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette, whom were blamed for national debt, limitation of rights, poverty, poor harvests, high taxes, etc. This hatred was further aggravated by the lavish lifestyles led by the French elite. The French Revolution reached a high point with the fall of the monarchy and the execution of the king and queen. 1 [5] A member of a low-ranking nobility, he made allies with important leaders of the French Revolution7 and was quickly promoted to general. In 1795, he won his first battle by defeating a royalist8 uprising, and the same year he fought against the armies of Austria and Italy. He later told an aide that after one of his early victories, “I no longer considered myself a mere general, but a man called upon to decide the fate of peoples.” Napoleon was 26 years old, and the way he answered his calling was by fighting what one biographer called a series of “unnecessary wars.” In 1798, he persuaded the revolutionary Directorate9 that ruled the French Republic to put him in charge of an ambitious expedition to Egypt and Syria. It was his first major attempt to undermine the power of Britain by cutting its trade route to India. Napoleon failed dismally to accomplish that objective, but his career continued to flourish.10 In 1799, upon his return to France, he organized a coup11 against the five-man Directorate and became the First of the three Consuls12 who seized control of the Republic. [10] In 1803, he sold 827,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi River to the administration of President Thomas Jefferson. For $15 million – about $250 million in 2016 dollars – it was a tremendous bargain for Uncle Sam: the so-called Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of what was then the United States. But Napoleon needed the money for a planned invasion of Great Britain and to launch a campaign against the coalition of Russia, Prussia13 and small German states called the Holy Roman Empire.14 While fighting that war, in 1804, Napoleon climbed the ultimate political rung by prevailing15 on Pope Pius VII16 to coronate17 him the Emperor of France.18 6. Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France, located west of the Italian Peninsula. The language of Corsica is thought to closer resemble Italian than French. Indeed, Napoleon was born Napoleone di Buonaparte. 7. The French Revolution was a period in French history (circa 1789-1799). The French Bourbon monarchy was overthrown and replaced with a republic that experienced several violent periods of political turmoil—all of which culminated in Napoleon’s dictatorship. 8. A supporter of the monarchy or crown 9. The Directory was a five-member committee that governed the French Republic from November 1795 (replacing the Committee of Public Safety) until November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon. 10. Flourish (verb): to thrive or prosper 11. Coup (noun): a sudden, violent seizure of power from a government or ruler 12. The Consulate ruled over France from 1799 until 1804 with the rise of the Napoleonic Empire. Napoleon was the First Consul, and the other two included Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès and Charles-François Lebrun. 13. Prussia, at its peak, was one of the most important states in the German Empire, expanding across Eastern and Central Europe. It was dissolved during WWII, becoming incorporated into various territories, including Poland and the Soviet Union. As of 1945, Prussia ceased to formally exist. 14. The Holy Roman Empire was composed of several central European territories and ruled under an elective monarchy. It was established in the Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. 15. Prevail (verb): to prove more powerful than an opposing force; to be victorious 16. Despite crowning Napoleon, Pope Pius VII (1742-1823) was often in conflict with him. In fact, in 1809, France annexed the Papal States and took Pius VII as their prisoner, exiling him. 17. Coronate (verb): to crown a ruler 18. This new title, as opposed to the King of France, was supposed to demonstrate that the monarchy was not being restored but another system was being in place. It also spoke to Napoleon’s desire to increase his power and control. 2 In 1805, he added to his title the King of Italy, and by 1806 he won all of his ground battles against the three European enemies. His attempt to invade England, however, failed disastrously in the Battle of Trafalgar,19 where the British navy – without losing a single vessel – sank 22 of the 33 ships in the Franco-Spanish Armada. Undeterred as the aggressor and expansionist, in 1808, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula and installed his brother Joseph as the King of Spain. [15] Finally in 1812, at the age of 42, Napoleon made his fatal blunder. He assembled la Grande Armée of 500,000 soldiers and, driven by the same obsession that had taken him to Egypt, invaded Russia. His goal again was to cripple Great Britain, this time by forcing Czar Alexander I20 to join a Europe-wide blockade21 of British trade. Napoleon reached Moscow on September 14 only to find it deserted and put to torch by order of its mayor. Russia’s notoriously22 long and bitter winter was coming; the invading troops were exhausted and starved after fighting an enemy who’d destroyed the harvest to deny them food; and Napoleon, who was an epileptic,23 remained for ten days in a Kremlin24 bedroom before emerging to take command of his desperate army. He ordered a retreat through the snowy and desolate territory. The long, exhaustive trek to France was survived by no more than 10,000 troops of the Grande Armée – one of history’s great military disasters that was made immortal by the 1812 Overture of Russian composer Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky.25 Thrilled by Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, the European nations, now thoroughly fed up with his wars and mayhem, formed an alliance of seven countries: Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain, Portugal, Sweden and Spain. Between October 16 and 19, 1813, they decisively defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig. The victorious armies invaded France and the next April, the Emperor of France was deposed26 by the French Senate.27 Napoleon was exiled to Elba, an island near Rome, and made one more attempt to seize the reins. [20] In February 1815 he escaped from the island, resumed command of the French Army, and for 100 days ruled France. He was then defeated by British and Prussian troops at the Belgian town of Waterloo, and exiled again, this time to Saint Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic. 19. The Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805) was a naval battle fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined French and Spanish Navies as part of the Napoleon Wars (1803-1815). 20. Czar (or Tsar) Alexander I (1777-1825 (r. 1801-1825)) was the Emperor of Russia, as well as the first Russian King of Poland and the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland. He changed foreign policies towards France several times. 21. Blockade (noun): an act of sealing off a place to prevent goods or people from entering or leaving; a barrier or siege 22. Notorious (adjective): famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed 23. A person with epilepsy, which is a neurological disorder marked by sudden loss of consciousness and seizures, or convulsions, often due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain. 24. A kremlin is a fortified central complex found in major Russian cities.