born in 1769 in corsica, went to military school

committee for public safety made him a general at age 24, two years later was commander of french armies in italy

defeated austria and papal states

suggested attacking british troops in egypt, didn’t work

took over france in a coup d’etat in 1799, named himself first consul. republic in theory, but he held all the power

crowned himself emperor in 1804

1801- repaired relationship with the church by recognizing catholicism as the religion of the majority of france, in return the pope didn’t take back church lands seized in the revolution

napoleonic code

• preserved equality for all citizens

• right to choose your job

• no more serfdom

• terrible for women

• officials/nobles promoted based on merit

• banned books/newspapers that spoke out against him

1799- when he became consul, france was at war with great britain, austria, and russia. peace treaty was signed in 1802, but war was started again in 1803 with the three from before plus sweden and prussia. defeated all of them by 1807, created the grand empire

• french empire- stretched to the rhine, included northern italy

• dependent states- (ruled by his relatives): spain, holland, italy, swiss republic, grand duchy of warsaw, all german states

• allied states- (forced to join him against great britain)- prussia, russia, austria, sweden

spread legan equality/status based on merit to the whole empire

empire collapsed

• britain had a really good navy. napoleon tried to invade but was crushed at trafalgar in 1805

• tried to stop british trade with the continental system (didn’t let the empire trade with england), but this just opened new british trade routes and pissed off his empire

• nationalism from the states he controlled

russia refuses to be part of the continental system, so napoleon invades. it doesn’t work. invading russia never works.

other states took advantage of crippled french army and exiled napoleon, putting louis xvi’s brother on the throne

napoleon comes back in 1815

battle of waterloo: britain, austria, russia, prussia take him on in belgium, napoleon loses and is exiled for real this time

winning countries establish congress of vienna, to try and reinstate monarchy and keep any one country from being too powerful

• ended revolutions in spain, italy