But while Napoleon lacked a strong personal faith, he admired the tactical power of organized religion. Following his initial ascent to power in France, he set about reestablishing the Catholic Church that had been all but dismantled during the Revolution.
As emperor, Napoleon emancipated the Jews in areas of Europe under his control, insisting that they be free to own property and worship freely a proclamation which earned him condemnation as the "Antichrist and the Enemy of God" by the Russian Orthodox Church. Of course he did so not out of pure benevolence but because he believed religious freedom would attract Jewish populations to the French-controlled territories. Following his Egyptian expedition, some scholars believe that Napoleon was particularly fascinated by Muhammad and the Muslim religion.
Although this, too, appears to be largely situational, as he once wrote, "I am nothing. Following a disastrous campaign in Russia and pressures from the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon was forced to abdicate as part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau on April 11, He had been carrying a poisonous pill with him ever since the failure in Russia and finally took it on April 12th.
But the pill must have lost its potency with age; while it made Napoleon violently ill , it did not kill him. Following his escape from Elba and his brief return to power, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and forced to surrender to the British captain of the HMS Bellerophon.
Initially, he drafted a letter to the Prince Regent and future King George IV requesting asylum and "a small estate" outside of London—a bold request considering his years of plotting to conquer Britain.
Parliament was concerned that Napoleon—a foreign dictator—would be so popular with the British common people that they refused to even let him disembark. Now held in the British Museum in London, the Rosetta Stone is a granite slab carved in three scripts: hieroglyphic Egyptian, demotic Egyptian and ancient Greek. It played a vital part in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and has long been considered a hugely important artefact. It is said that Napoleon carried a vial of poison, attached to a cord he wore around his neck, that could be swiftly downed should he ever be captured.
Apparently, he did eventually imbibe the poison in , following his exile to Elba, but its potency was by then diminished and only succeeded in making him violently ill. An aerial view of the island where Napoleon lived out his final years. Following his defeat at Waterloo , Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, a small island in the South Atlantic, 1, miles from the nearest land.
Escape from such isolated incarceration was reckoned to be near-impossible. Even so, numerous plans were hatched to rescue the exiled Emperor, including an audacious plan involving two early submarines and a mechanical chair. Napoleon has become synonymous with shortness. On March 21, , Napoleon instituted the Napoleonic Code, otherwise known as the French Civil Code, parts of which are still in use around the world today.
The Napoleonic Code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and stated that government jobs must be given to the most qualified. The Napoleonic Code followed Napoleon's new constitution, which created the first consul — a position which amounted to nothing less than a dictatorship. Following the French Revolution, unrest continued in France; in June of , a coup resulted in the left-wing radical group, the Jacobins, taking control of the Directory.
Working with one of the new directors, Emmanuel Sieyes, Napoleon hatched plans for a second coup that would place the pair along with Pierre-Roger Ducos atop a new government called the Consulate. With the new guidelines, the first consul was permitted to appoint ministers, generals, civil servants, magistrates and even members of the legislative assemblies.
Napoleon would, of course, be the one who would fulfill the first consul's duties. In February , the new constitution was easily accepted. He also negotiated a European peace, which lasted just three years before the start of the Napoleonic Wars. His reforms proved popular: In he was elected consul for life, and two years later he was proclaimed emperor of France.
In France was devastated when Napoleon's invasion of Russia turned out to be a colossal failure — and the beginning of the end for Napoleon. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Napoleon's Grand Army were killed or badly wounded: Out of an original fighting force of some , men, just 10, soldiers were still fit for battle.
News of the defeat reinvigorated Napoleon's enemies, both inside and outside of France. A failed coup was attempted while Napoleon led his charge against Russia, while the British began to advance through French territories. With international pressure mounting and his government lacking the resources to fight back against his enemies, Napoleon surrendered to allied forces on March 30, On April 6, , Napoleon was forced to abdicate power and went into exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean sea off of Italy.
His exile did not last long, as he watched France stumbled forward without him. In March , Napoleon escaped the island and quickly made his way back to Paris. But the enthusiasm that greeted Napoleon when he resumed control of the government soon gave way to old frustrations and fears about his leadership.
On June 16, , Napoleon led French troops into Belgium and defeated the Prussians; two days later he was defeated by the British, reinforced by Prussian fighters, at the Battle of Waterloo. It was a humiliating loss, and on June 22, , Napoleon abdicated his powers. Napoleon constantly talked about the Revolution, even the Republic at times and saw the great danger.
But he always tried to present himself on the one hand as a military man, a man of affairs, a pragmatist in some ways, but also as the legitimate heir of the Revolution. What sort of empire was this? What sort of state was this to be? Was he, as Napoleon claimed, the legitimate heir of the Revolution, or was he, as his critics certainly claimed, simply a military tyrant, reminiscent of the worst aspects of the Roman Empire?
Or does his regime represent a really uniquely new political synthesis of both democratic forms and authoritarian control? To answer these questions, we need to turn to the basic elements of the regime itself: its constitution, its administration, the domestic achievements of the regime.
The Constitution of had been based on universal suffrage. There was universal suffrage to elect electors, who would then elect a final legislature. This was the usual kind of compromised solution. Learn more about the economic problems of France in the s. Napoleon insisted upon the codification of law; the Napoleonic Code would become one of the great achievements of his regime, implemented not only in France, but also in the countries of Europe occupied by the French armies.
That new code imposed upon France a uniform system of justice. It called for equality before the law. This was a major step. One thing that equality before the law meant to the Napoleonic regime was that no one would be tax-exempt. All French citizens were now going to bear the financial burdens of state.
Freedom of religion was guaranteed under the new constitution; Protestants would be able to practice their religion, and Napoleon took steps to emancipate the Jews. This had been done initially during the Revolution itself in the first constitution.
Napoleon would take additional steps in this direction. The new constitution also called for freedom of profession. It dealt the final deathblow to the old guilds, and it was a bow toward the new forces of commercial capitalism and industrialization in France. What it did was to signal to liberal economic elements that this was going to be a regime that would adopt policies that were favorable to business, favorable to trade, to commerce, to break whatever residual powers lingered of the old guild system in France.
For Napoleon, it was quite clear the genie could not be put back in the bottle; the Revolution had happened.
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