A
V) NAPOLEON AND THE POPE
The
Papal States were the first to denounce the continental system. This
was due to acute socio-economic hardship caused by the system and the
Pope's desire to remain neutral as a spiritual leader. It made the Pope
to open his ports to the British trading ships in 1808. Napoleon ignored
the 1801 concordat, invaded the Papal States, abducted the Pope and
imprisoned him in France. This drastically undermined Napoleon's
popularity amongst the Catholics in France and the whole Catholic states
in the world.
vi) THE PENINSULAR WAR
Napoleon's
ambitions to enforce the continental system drove him to invade
Portugal and Spain. When Prince John the regent of Portugal refused to
abide by the continental system, Napoleon attacked Portugal through
Spain. The Spaniards rose against their King Charles IV for his weakness
that made it possible for the French troops to match through their
territory up to Portugal. Napoleon used this confused situation to force
Charles to resign and impose his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the
Spanish throne (1808).
Napoleon's double standard
system made the Spaniards and the Portuguese to forget their differences
and engage him in acute guerilla warfare from 1808 to 1811. They were
assisted by the British troops commanded by Wellington, Sir John Moore
and Arthur Wallesley. This war was so disastrous to Napoleon that he
lost about 300,000 soldiers. This is why he called it "the Spanish ulcer
that destroyed me.
vii) THEMOSCOWCAMPAIGN 1812
Diplomatic
relations between France and Russia that was forged by the treaty of
Tilsit in 1807 was strained by Napoleon's continental system. The
negative effects of the continental system made Alexander I (of Russia)
to abandon the system and open the Russian ports to the British goods.
In 1811, Napoleon mobilized over 600,000 troops, the largest in history,
to teach the Tsar a lasting lesson that he would never forget. On 24^
June, he crossed R. Niemen with a lot of enthusiasm as he said; Moscow
is the half-way house to India. The Russians tactically withdrew and
used scorch earth policy in which they destroyed everything that would
be useful to the advancing French soldiers. Napoleon reached Moscow only
to find a city that was burning without anyone in and around it.
Vincent Cronnin describes this episode as follows;
For seven weeks. Napoleon had been on the march and all he had conquered was empty space.
The further he penetrated into Russia, the more he and his men became aware of empty space
and silence. When they reached what on the map was Moscow, they found it burnt and its food
buried.... even the Russian sky was empty of birds.
Above
all, there was no safe water for the French soldiers. The Russians had
filled all water wells and poisoned the remaining ones. Famine,
starvation, cholera, cold and Russian guerilla attacks led to the death
of Napoleons soldiers in thousands. These circumstances forced Napoleon
to retreat from Moscow and his retreat is one of the most horrible
episodes in history. He lost the bulk of his army as he tried to cross
R. Niemen whose bridge collapsed drowning thousands of his troops. He
also lost several soldiers on rivers whose bridges were deliberately
destroyed by the Russian guerilla men.
The above
circumstances made Napoleon to reach France (Paris on Dec 1812) with
about 20,000 soldiers out of which only about 1000 were useful for any
military service. All these humiliations made Napoleon vulnerable and
morale boosted other states to fight him. No wonder that the second
coalition was formed and defeated him at the battle of Leipzig and
exiled him to the Island of Elba.
CONSEQUENCES OF THEMOSCOWCAMPAIGN
1.
The campaign ranks high in Napoleon's as well as the French history as
the worst military disaster. Napoleon was humiliated and lost over
580,000 soldiers. This weakened him militarily and according to
Talleyrand his foreign minister "...is the beginning of his end". It was
therefore a maximum turning point against his control over Europe.
2.
Napoleon's defeat in the Moscow campaign contributed to the formation
of the second and third coalitions against him. It was a clear testimony
that Napoleon was not invincible or infallible. This led to unity of
Europe even weaker states against him.
3. The
Moscow "disaster" led to the rise of European nationalism against
Napoleon's dominance over Europe. It became a source of inspiration for
states that were dominated by Napoleon to start struggling for their
independence. This led to the war of Liberation in which nationalities
like the Germans, Italians and Austrians participated in an attempt to
free themselves from the French political dominance.
4.
The Russian victory increased the Russian prestige and ambition in
Europe. She started interfering in the French dominated states like
Poland and the German states in order to destroy Napoleon's influence in
those countries. For example, she made the Calish treaty (Feb 1813)
with Prussia in which she promised to help Prussia against Napoleon.
5.
Napoleon's massive loss of over 580,000 troops made him to resort to
compulsory military recruitment from 1813 - 1814. These "new soldiers"
were mostly young and inexperienced boys who were hurriedly trained to
meet Napoleon's targets of dominating Europe. This brought Napoleon into
loggerheads with the French parents who were flabbergasted (shocked) by
the massive death of their young boys in the process of executing
Napoleon's ambitions.
6. Napoleon's humiliation in
Moscow denied him internal support from a section of the Frenchmen. The
heavy losses of the French soldiers, armaments, horses, mining of the
French treasury and above all conscription made a number of Frenchmen to
turn against their once beloved Napoleon. This is what made Talleyrand,
(his minister of foreign affairs), Fouche (his police chief) and
Bernadette, the heir to the Swedish throne to join the hostile European
powers against Napoleon. This is why Napoleon's downfall became
inevitable by 1815.
7. Napoleon's failure in the
Moscow campaign was the final set back to the continental system. He had
mobilized such a huge force to defeat Russia and force her to implement
the system. However, his failure to defeat Russia finished the
continental system itself. It showed how disastrous the continental
system was and made him to abandon it.
THE 4TH COALITIONAND THE BATTLE OFLEIPZIG (1813)
Although
Napoleon was defeated in the peninsular war and the Moscow campaign,
nevertheless the allied powers were too scared of Napoleon that they
hesitated to cross R. Rhine and attack France directly. They therefore
sent a message to Napoleon from Frankfurt in Germany (Frankfurt
proposal) on9^Nov 1813, in which they stated that they were ready to
sign a peace treaty with him. They said they would accept the Rhine,
Pyrenes and Alps as the-Frontiers of France. All members of the French
parliament were in favour of his peace proposal but Napoleon rejected it
for two reasons. First, he thought that the fourth coalition would
disintegrate and end in his success. Secondly, he feared to lose his
long accumulated reputation, which might provoke the Frenchmen to lose
confidence and rise against him.
Napoleon's
rejection of the Frankfurt peace proposals made the allied powers to
invade France from three fronts of Belgium, Rhine and Switzerland.
Napoleon mobilized a new ,army of 250,000 troops and defeated the
Russian and Prussian forces at the battles of Lautzen and Bautzen
respectively. The allies held a secret meeting at Chamaunt and vowed to
fight for 20 year until Napoleon was defeated. They also agreed that
none of them was to sign a secret treaty with Napoleon without
consulting the other coalition members.
They also
re-organized their forces and defeated Napoleon at the battle of Leipzig
(1813) which is commonly known as "the battle of all Nations". The
allied troops drove the French forces from Spain and rapidly advanced
towards France. They entered Paris which forced Napoleon to sneak to his
palace of Fontainbley from where he later signed a peace treaty with
the allied powers on 6'^^ April 1814. According to the treaty of
Fountainley, the following were decided;
i) Napoleon gave up his and family claim on the French throne.
ii) He was allowed to retain the title of emperor and given a small kingdom of Elba where he was exiled,
ii) He was entitled to a yearly pension of 2,000,000 Francs.
iii) Napoleon's wife Marie Louis was given the Dutchy of Parma in Northern Italy.
iv) France was to retain her frontiers of 1792 and was not to pay any war indemnity;
After
these, Napoleon bade fare well to his army, kissed the French flag and
went to exile in Elba. Louis XVIII, the brother of the executed Louis
XVI was imposed on the French throne.
THE HUNDRED DAYSEPISODE OFNAPOLEONAND THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO
Napoleon
was very disgruntled with the activities of the allied powers who had
forced him to exile. This was because they had not allowed his wife
Marie Louis and (his, son to accompany him. They were confiscating his
mails and he was therefore in a total communication problem. Besides,
his pensions were not paid on time. He also knew that Louis XVIII was
very unpopular to the Frenchmen and the allied powers were divided and
were quarreling on the division of his empire. Considering these
factors, Napoleon left Elba on 26th Jan 1815 and reached the French
coast on 11th March 1815.
The news of Napoleon's
triumphant escape from Elba to France was greeted with a lot of
jubilations from the Frenchmen. He arrived with his 1800 trusted
followers who were joined by many of his soldiers and other followers
who were in France. Louis XVIII sent a big force led by Marshall Ney to
arrest Napoleon at Grenoble but Napoleon won them over to his side by a
simple statement when he said; "Soldiers, this is your emperor, fire at
him"!
This event made the poor Louis XVIII to flee
from France and Napoleon once against became the French emperor. Hazen
has described Napoleon's triumphant escape from Elba to France as "the
most memorable event in history".
Napoleon ruled
France between March to June which is referred to as the hundred days.
He promised peace, elections, and parliament and became the great and
loved emperor of France for the second time. This disorganized the
allied powers at the Congress of Vienna where they were celebrating the
downfall of Napoleon, amongst other reasons. They consequently forgot
their differences and mobilized a huge force of 800,000 troops to fight
and defeat Napoleon once and for all. Napoleon proposed for a peace
discussion but the allied powers rejected his peace initiative. They
knew that he was trying to buy time to re-organize his troops.
THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO AND THE FINAL DEFEAT OFNAPOLEON, 18THJUNE1815
By
1815, the allied powers were sure that even if Napoleon won one or two
battles, he would finally be defeated. Wellington re-organized his army
in Belgium to attack France. Marshall Blucher advanced from Prussia to
reinforce Wellington's forces. He joined Wellington and attacked
Napoleon from the other side.
Napoleon was
encircled and consequently defeated at the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon
tried to commit suicide in an attempt to avoid such a terrible
humiliation in his military career. However, he did not succeed and to
this-effect he remarked;
I ought to have died at Waterloo but the misfortune is that when a man seeks death most, he
Cannot find it Men were killed around me, behind and everywhere but there was no bullet for
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