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| SETTING THE STAGE Napoleon Bonaparte was quite a short man—just five
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| feet three inches tall. However, he cast a long shadow over the history of mod-
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| ern times. He would come to be recognized as one of the world’s greatest mil-
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| itary geniuses, along with Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hannibal of
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| Carthage, and Julius Caesar of Rome. In only four years, from 1795 to 1799,
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| Napoleon rose from a relatively obscure position as an officer in the French
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| army to become master of France.
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| Napoleon Seizes Power
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| Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
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| When he was nine years old, his parents sent him to a military school. In 1785,
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| at the age of 16, he finished school and became a lieutenant in the artillery. When
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| the Revolution broke out, Napoleon joined the army of the new government.
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| Hero of the Hour In October 1795, fate handed the young officer a chance for
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| glory. When royalist rebels marched on the National Convention, a government
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| official told Napoleon to defend the delegates. Napoleon and his gunners greeted
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| the thousands of royalists with a cannonade. Within minutes, the attackers fled
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| in panic and confusion. Napoleon Bonaparte became the hero of the hour and
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| was hailed throughout Paris as the savior of the French republic.
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| In 1796, the Directory appointed Napoleon to lead a French army against the
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| forces of Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Crossing the Alps, the young
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| general swept into Italy and won a series of remarkable victories. Next, in an
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| attempt to protect French trade interests and to disrupt British trade with India,
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| Napoleon led an expedition to Egypt. But he was unable to repeat the successes
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| he had achieved in Europe. His army was pinned down in Egypt, and the British
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| admiral Horatio Nelson defeated his naval forces. However, Napoleon managed
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| to keep stories about his setbacks out of the newspapers and thereby remained a
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| great hero to the people of France.
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| Coup d’État By 1799, the Directory had lost control of the political situation
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| and the confidence of the French people. When Napoleon returned from Egypt,
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| his friends urged him to seize political power. Napoleon took action in early
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| November 1799. Troops under his command surrounded the national legislature
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| and drove out most of its members. The lawmakers who remained then voted to
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| Napoleon Forges an Empire
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| 664 Chapter 23
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| dissolve the Directory. In its place, they established a group
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| of three consuls, one of whom was Napoleon. Napoleon
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| quickly took the title of first consul and assumed the pow-
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| ers of a dictator. A sudden seizure of power like Napoleon’s
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| is known as a coup—from the French phrase coup d’état
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| (KOO day•TAH), or “blow to the state.”
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| At the time of Napoleon’s coup, France was still at war.
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| In 1799, Britain, Austria, and Russia joined forces with one
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| goal in mind, to drive Napoleon from power. Once again,
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| Napoleon rode from Paris at the head of his troops.
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| Eventually, as a result of war and diplomacy, all three
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| nations signed peace agreements with France. By 1802,
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| Europe was at peace for the first time in ten years. Napoleon
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| was free to focus his energies on restoring order in France.
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| Napoleon Rules France
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| At first, Napoleon pretended to be the constitutionally
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| chosen leader of a free republic. In 1800, a plebiscite
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| (PLEHB•ih•SYT), or vote of the people, was held to approve
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| a new constitution. Desperate for strong leadership, the
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| people voted overwhelmingly in favor of the constitution.
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| This gave all real power to Napoleon as first consul.
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| Restoring Order at Home Napoleon did not try to return the
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| nation to the days of Louis XVI. Rather, he kept many of the
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| changes that had come with the Revolution. In general, he
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| supported laws that would both strengthen the central govern-
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| ment and achieve some of the goals of the Revolution.
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| His first task was to get the economy on a solid footing.
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| Napoleon set up an efficient method of tax collection and
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| established a national banking system. In addition to ensur-
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| ing the government a steady supply of tax money, these
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| actions promoted sound financial management and better
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| control of the economy. Napoleon also took steps to end
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| corruption and inefficiency in government. He dismissed
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| corrupt officials and, in order to provide the government with trained officials, set
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| up lycées, or government-run public schools. These lycées were open to male stu-
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| dents of all backgrounds. Graduates were appointed to public office on the basis of
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| merit rather than family connections.
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| One area where Napoleon disregarded changes introduced by the Revolution
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| was religion. Both the clergy and many peasants wanted to restore the position of
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| the Church in France. Responding to their wishes, Napoleon signed a concordat,
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| or agreement, with Pope Pius VII. This established a new relationship between
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| church and state. The government recognized the influence of the Church, but
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| rejected Church control in national affairs. The concordat gained Napoleon the
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| support of the organized Church as well as the majority of the French people.
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| Napoleon thought that his greatest work was his comprehensive system of laws,
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| known as the Napoleonic Code. This gave the country a uniform set of laws and
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| eliminated many injustices. However, it actually limited liberty and promoted order
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| and authority over individual rights. For example, freedom of speech and of the
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| press, established during the Revolution, were restricted under the code. The code
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| also restored slavery in the French colonies of the Caribbean.
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