EUROPE AND NAPOLEON
[Sidenote: The demoralized condition of France, and Bonaparte's
reforms.]
245. The activity of the extraordinary man who had placed himself at the
head of the French republic was by no means confined to the important
alterations of the map of Europe described in the previous chapter. He
was indefatigable in carrying out a series of internal reforms, second
only in importance to those of the great Revolution of 1789. The Reign
of Terror and the incompetence of the Directory's government had left
France in a very bad plight.[419] Bonaparte's reorganization of the
government has already been noticed. The finances, too, were in a
terrible condition. These the First Consul adjusted with great skill and
quickly restored the national credit.
[Sidenote: The adjustment of relations with the pope and the church.]
[Sidenote: The Concordat of 1801.]
He then set about settling the great problem of the non-juring clergy,
who were still suffering for refusing to sanction the Civil Constitution
of the Clergy.[420] All imprisoned priests were now freed, on promising
not to oppose the constitution. Their churches were given back to them,
and the distinction between "non-juring" and "constitutional" clergymen
was obliterated. Sunday, which had been abolished by the republican
calendar, was once more observed, and all the revolutionary holidays
except July 14,--the anniversary of the fall of the Bastile,--and the
first day of the republican year, were done away with. A formal treaty
with the pope, the Concordat of 1801, was concluded, which revoked some
of the provisions of the Civil Constitution, especially the election of
the priests and bishops by the people, and recognized the pope as the
head of the church. It is noteworthy, however, that Bonaparte did not
restore to the church its ancient possessions, and that he reserved to
himself the right to appoint the bishops, as the former kings had done.
[Sidenote: The emigrant nobles permitted to return.]
As for the emigrant nobles, Bonaparte decreed that no more names should
be added to the lists. The striking of names from the list and the
return of confiscated lands that had not already been sold, he made
favors to be granted by himself. Parents and relatives of emigrants were
no longer to be regarded as incapable of holding public offices. In
April, 1802, a general amnesty was issued, and no less than forty
thousand families returned to France.
[Sidenote: Old habits resumed.]
[Sidenote: The grateful reliance of the nation on Bonaparte.]
There was a gradual reaction from the fantastic innovations of the Reign
of Terror. The old titles of address, Monsieur and Madame, were again
used instead of the revolutionary "Citizen." Streets which had been
rebaptized with republican names resumed their former ones. Old titles
of nobility were revived, and something very like a royal court began to
develop at the Palace of the Tuilleries; for, except in name, Bonaparte
was already a king, and his wife, Josephine, a queen. It had been clear
for some years that the nation was weary of political agitation. How
great a blessing after the anarchy of the past to put all responsibility
upon one who showed himself capable of concluding a long war with
unprecedented glory for France and of reëstablishing order and the
security of person and property, the necessary conditions for renewed
prosperity! How natural that the French should welcome a despotism to
which they had been accustomed for centuries, after suffering as they
had under nominally republican institutions!
[Sidenote: The _Code Napoléon_.]
One of the greatest and most permanent of Bonaparte's achievements still
remains to be noted. The heterogeneous laws of the old régime had been
much modified by the legislation of the successive assemblies. All this
needed a final revision, and Bonaparte appointed a commission to
undertake this great task. Their draft of the new code was discussed in
the Council of State, and the First Consul had many suggestions to make.
The resulting codification of the civil law--the _Code Napoléon_--is
still used to-day, not only in France, but also, with some
modifications, in Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Holland, Belgium,
Italy, and even in the state of Louisiana. The criminal and commercial
law was also codified. These codes carried with them into foreign lands
the principles of equality upon which they were based, and thus diffused
the benefits of the Revolution beyond the borders of France.[421]
[Sidenote: Napoleon made Consul for life, 1802; and Emperor, 1804.]
Bonaparte was able gradually to modify the constitution so that his
power became more and more absolute. In 1802 he was appointed Consul for
life and given the right to name his successor. Even this did not
satisfy his insatiable ambition, which demanded that his actual power
should be clothed with all the attributes and surroundings appropriate
to an hereditary ruler. In May, 1804, he was accordingly given the title
of Emperor, and (in December) crowned, as the successor of Charlemagne,
with great pomp in the cathedral of Notre Dame. He at once proceeded to
establish a new nobility to take the place of that abolished by the
first National Assembly in 1790.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's censorship of the press.]
From this time on he became increasingly tyrannical and hostile to
criticism. At the very beginning of his administration he had suppressed
a great part of the numerous political newspapers and forbidden the
establishment of new ones. As emperor he showed himself still more
exacting. His police furnished the news to the papers and carefully
omitted all that might offend their suspicious master. He ordered the
journals to "put in quarantine all news that might be disadvantageous or
disagreeable to France." His ideal was to suppress all newspapers but
one, which should be used for official purposes.
[Illustration: Napoleon]
[Sidenote: Napoleon on the necessity of war for France.]
246. A great majority of the French undoubtedly longed for peace, but
Napoleon's position made war a personal necessity for him. No one saw
this more clearly than he. "If," he said to his Council of State in the
summer of 1802, "the European states intend ever to renew the war, the
sooner it comes the better. Every day the remembrance of their defeats
grows dimmer and at the same time the prestige of our victories
pales.... France needs glorious deeds, and hence war. She must be the
first among the states, or she is lost. I shall put up with peace as
long as our neighbors can maintain it, but I shall regard it as an
advantage if they force me to take up my arms again before they are
rusted.... In our position I shall look on each conclusion of peace as
simply a short armistice, and I regard myself as destined during my term
of office to fight almost without intermission."
[Sidenote: Napoleon dreams of becoming emperor of Europe.]
On another occasion, in 1804, Napoleon said, "There will be no rest in
Europe until it is under a single chief--an emperor who shall have kings
for officers, who shall distribute kingdoms to his lieutenants, and
shall make this one king of Italy, that one of Bavaria; this one ruler
of Switzerland, that one governor of Holland, each having an office of
honor in the imperial household." This was the ideal that he now found
himself in a situation to carry out with marvelous exactness.
[Sidenote: Reasons for England's persistent opposition to Napoleon.]
There were many reasons why the peace with England (concluded at Amiens
in March, 1802) should be speedily broken, especially as the First
Consul was not averse to a renewal of the war. The obvious intention of
Napoleon to bring as much of Europe under his control as he could, and
the imposition of high duties on English goods in those territories that
he already controlled, filled commercial and industrial England with
apprehension. The English people longed for peace, but peace appeared
only to offer an opportunity to the Corsican usurper to ruin England by
a continuous war upon her commerce. This was the secret of England's
pertinacity. All the other European powers concluded peace with Napoleon
at some time during his reign. England alone did not lay down her arms a
second time until the emperor of the French was a prisoner.
[Sidenote: War between France and England renewed in 1803.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon institutes a coast blockade.]
247. War was renewed between England and France in 1803. Bonaparte
promptly occupied Hanover, of which it will be remembered that the
English king was elector, and declared the coast blockaded from Hanover
to Otranto. Holland, Spain, Portugal, and the Ligurian
republic--formerly the republic of Genoa--were, by hook or by crook,
induced to agree to furnish each their contingent of men or money to the
French army and to exclude English ships from their ports.
[Sidenote: Napoleon threatens to invade England.]
To cap the climax, England was alarmed by the appearance of a French
army at Boulogne, just across the Channel. A great number of flatboats
were collected, and troops trained to embark and disembark. Apparently
Napoleon harbored the firm purpose of invading the British Isles. Yet
the transportation of a large body of troops across the English Channel,
trifling as is the distance, would have been very hazardous, and by many
it was deemed downright impossible. No one knows whether Napoleon really
expected to make the trial. It is quite possible that his main purpose
in collecting an army at Boulogne was to have it in readiness for the
continental war which he saw immediately ahead of him. He succeeded, at
any rate, in terrifying England, who prepared to defend herself.
[Sidenote: Coalition of Russia, Austria, England, and Sweden.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon king of Italy.]
The Tsar, Alexander I, had submitted a plan for the reconciliation of
France and England in August, 1803. The rejection of this and the
evident intention of Napoleon to include the eastern coast of the
Adriatic in his sphere of influence, led Russia to join a new coalition
which, by July, 1805, included Austria, Sweden, and, of course, England.
Austria was especially affected by the increase of Napoleon's power in
Italy. He had been crowned king of Italy in May, 1805, had created a
little duchy in northern Italy for his sister, and had annexed the
Ligurian republic to France. There were rumors, too, that he was
planning to seize the Venetian territories of Austria.
[Sidenote: The war of 1805.]
[Sidenote: Occupation of Vienna.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Austerlitz, December 2, 1805.]
War was declared against Austria, August 23, and four days later the
army at Boulogne was ordered eastward. One of the Austrian commanders
exhibited the most startling incapacity in allowing himself to be shut
up in Ulm, where he was forced to capitulate with all his troops
(October 20). Napoleon then marched down the Danube with little
opposition, and before the middle of November Vienna was in the
possession of French troops. Napoleon thereupon led his forces north to
meet the allied armies of Austria and Russia; these he defeated on
December 2, in the terrible winter battle of Austerlitz. Russia then
withdrew for a time and signed an armistice; and Austria was obliged to
submit to a humiliating peace, the Treaty of Pressburg.
[Sidenote: The Treaty of Pressburg.]
By this treaty Austria recognized all Napoleon's changes in Italy, and
ceded to his kingdom of Italy that portion of the Venetian territory
that she had received at Campo-Formio. Moreover, she ceded Tyrol to
Bavaria, which was friendly to Napoleon, and other of her possessions to
Würtemberg and Baden, also friends of the French emperor. She further
agreed to ratify the assumption, on the part of the rulers of Bavaria
and Würtemberg, of the titles of King. Napoleon was now in a position
still further to reorganize western Europe, with a view to establishing
a great international federation of which he should be the head.[422]
[Sidenote: The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806.]
248. Napoleon had no desire to unify Germany; he merely wished to
maintain a certain number of independent states, or groups of states,
which he could conveniently control. He had provided, in the Treaty of
Pressburg, that the newly created sovereigns should enjoy the "plenitude
of sovereignty" and all the rights derived therefrom, precisely as did
the rulers of Austria and Prussia.
This, by explicitly declaring several of the most important of the
German states altogether independent of the emperor, rendered the
further existence of the Holy Roman Empire impossible. The emperor,
Francis II, accordingly abdicated, August 6, 1806. Thus the most
imposing and enduring political office known to history was formally
abolished.
[Sidenote: Francis II assumes the title of 'Emperor of Austria.']
Francis II did not, however, lose his title of Emperor. Shortly after
the First Consul had received that title, Francis adopted the formula
"Emperor of Austria," to designate him as the ruler of all the
possessions of his house. Hitherto he had been officially known as King
of Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Galicia, and Laodomeria, Duke of
Lorraine, Venice, Salzburg, etc., Grand Duke of Transylvania, Margrave
of Moravia, etc.
[Sidenote: The Confederation of the Rhine.]
Meanwhile Napoleon had organized a union of the southern German states,
called the Confederation of the Rhine, and had assumed its headship as
"Protector." This he had done, he assured Europe, "in the dearest
interests of his people and of his neighbors," adding the pious hope
that the French armies had crossed the Rhine for the last time, and that
the people of Germany would witness no longer, "except in the annals of
the past, the horrible pictures of disorder, devastation, and slaughter
that war invariably brings with it."[423]
Immediately after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon proclaimed that the
king of Naples, who had allied himself with the English, had ceased to
reign, and French generals were ordered to occupy Naples. In March,
1806, he made his brother Joseph king of Naples and Sicily, his brother
Louis king of Holland, and his brother-in-law, Murat, duke of Cleves and
Berg. These states and those of his German allies constituted what he
called "the real French Empire."
[Sidenote: Prussia forced into war with France.]
249. One of the most important of the continental states, it will have
been noticed, had taken no part as yet in the opposition to the
extension of Napoleon's power. Prussia, the first power to conclude
peace with the new French republic in 1795, had since that time
maintained a strict neutrality. Had it yielded to Tsar Alexander's
persuasions and joined the coalition in 1805, it might have turned the
tide at Austerlitz, or at any rate have encouraged further resistance to
the conqueror. The hesitation of Frederick William III cost him dear,
for Napoleon now forced him into war at a time when he could look for no
efficient assistance from Russia or the other powers. The immediate
cause of the declaration of war was the disposal of Hanover. This
electorate Frederick William had consented to hold provisionally,
pending its possible transfer to him should the English king give his
assent. Prussia was anxious to get possession of Hanover because it lay
just between her older possessions and the territory which she had
gained in the redistribution of 1803.[424]
[Sidenote: Napoleon's insolent behavior toward Prussia.]
Napoleon, as usual, did not fail either to see or to use his advantage.
His conduct toward Prussia was most insolent. After setting her at
enmity with England and promising that she should have Hanover, he
unblushingly offered to restore the electorate to George III. His
insults now began to arouse the national spirit in Prussia, and the
reluctant Frederick William was forced by the party in favor of war,
which included his beautiful queen Louise, and the great statesman
Stein, to break with Napoleon.
[Illustration: EUROPE AT THE HEIGHT OF NAPOLEON'S POWER]
[Sidenote: Decisive defeat of the Prussian army at Jena, 1806.]
Her army was, however, as has been well said, "only that of Frederick
the Great grown twenty years older"; one of Frederick's generals, the
aged duke of Brunswick, who had issued the famous manifesto in
1792,[425] was its leader. A single defeat, near Jena (October 14,
1806), put Prussia completely in the hands of her enemy. This one
disaster produced complete demoralization throughout the country.
Fortresses were surrendered without resistance, and the king fled to the
uttermost parts of his realm on the Russian boundary.
[Sidenote: The campaign in Poland.]
[Sidenote: Territorial changes of the treaties of Tilsit, July, 1807.]
[Sidenote: Creation of the grand duchy of Warsaw and the kingdom of
Westphalia.]
Napoleon now led his army into Poland, where he spent the winter in
operations against Russia and her feeble Prussian ally. He closed an
arduous campaign by a signal victory at Friedland (June 14, 1807), which
was followed by the treaties of Tilsit with Russia and Prussia (July 7
and 9). Napoleon had no mercy on Prussia. Frederick William III lost all
his possessions to the west of the Elbe and all that Prussia had gained
in the second and third partitions of Poland. The Polish territory
Napoleon made into a new subject kingdom called the grand duchy of
Warsaw, and chose his friend, the king of Saxony, as its ruler. Out of
the western lands of Prussia, which he later united with Hanover, he
created the kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome. Russia, on the
other hand, was treated with marked consideration. The Tsar finally
consented to recognize all the sweeping territorial changes that
Napoleon had made, and secretly agreed to enforce the blockade against
England should that country refuse to make peace.
[Sidenote: The continental blockade.]
250. Napoleon's most persevering enemy still remained unconquered and
inaccessible. Just as Napoleon was undertaking his successful campaign
against Austria in 1805, Nelson had annihilated the French fleet for the
second time in the renowned naval engagement of Trafalgar, off the coast
of Spain. It seemed more than ever necessary, therefore, to ruin England
commercially and industrially, since there was obviously no likelihood
of subduing it by arms.
[Sidenote: The Berlin Decree and Napoleon's 'paper' blockade.]
In May, 1806, England had declared the coast from the Elbe to Brest to
be blockaded. Napoleon replied to this with the Berlin Decree (November
21, 1806), in which he proclaimed it a monstrous abuse of the right for
England to declare great stretches of coast in a state of blockade which
her whole fleet would be unable to enforce. He retaliated with a
"paper"[426] blockade of the British Isles, which forbade all commerce
with them. Letters or packages directed to England or to an Englishman
or written in the English language were not to be permitted to pass
through the mails in the countries he controlled. Every English subject
in countries occupied by French troops or in the territory of Napoleon's
allies was to be regarded as a prisoner of war and his property as a
lawful prize. All trade in English goods was forbidden.
[Sidenote: Disastrous effects of the blockades on the commerce of the
United States.]
A year later England established a similar paper blockade of the ports
of the French empire and its allies, but permitted the ships of neutral
powers to proceed, provided that they touched at an English port,
secured a license from the English government, and paid a heavy export
duty. Napoleon promptly declared all ships that submitted to these
humiliating regulations to be lawful prizes of French privateers. The
ships of the United States were at this time the most numerous and
important of the neutral carriers. The disastrous results of these
restrictions led to the various embargo acts (the first of which was
passed by Congress in December, 1807), and ultimately to the destruction
of the flourishing carrying trade of the United States.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's attempt to make the continent independent of
English colonial products.]
Napoleon tried to render Europe permanently independent of the colonial
productions brought from English colonies and by English ships. He
encouraged the substitution of chicory for coffee, the cultivation of
the sugar beet, and the discovery of new dyes to replace those coming
from the tropics. But the distress caused by the disturbance in trade
produced great discontent, especially in Russia; it rendered the
domination of Napoleon more and more distasteful, and finally
contributed to his downfall.[427]
[Sidenote: Napoleon's policy in France.]
251. France owed much to Napoleon, for he had restored order and
guaranteed many of the beneficent achievements of the Revolution of
1789. His boundless ambition was, it is true, sapping her strength by
forcing younger and younger men into his armies in order to build up the
vast international federation of which he dreamed. But his victories and
the commanding position to which he had raised France could not but fill
the nation with pride.
[Sidenote: Public works.]
He sought to gain popular approval by great public improvements. He
built marvelous roads across the Alps and along the Rhine, which still
fill the traveler with admiration. He beautified Paris by opening up
wide streets and quays, and building magnificent bridges and triumphal
arches that kept fresh in the people's mind the recollection of his
victories. By these means he gradually converted a mediæval town into
the most beautiful of modern capitals.
[Sidenote: Reorganization of education.]
The whole educational system was reorganized and made as highly
centralized and as subservient to the aims of the emperor as any
department of government. Napoleon argued that one of the chief aims of
education should be the formation of loyal subjects who would be
faithful to the emperor and his successors. An imperial catechism was
prepared, which not only inculcated loyalty to Napoleon, but actually
threatened with eternal perdition those who should fail in their
obligations to him, including military service.[428]
[Sidenote: The new nobility and the Legion of Honor.]
Napoleon created a new nobility, and he endeavored to assure the support
of distinguished individuals by making them members of the Legion of
Honor which he founded. The "Princes" whom he nominated received an
annual income of two hundred thousand francs. The ministers of state,
senators, members of his Council of State, and the archbishops received
the title of Count and a revenue of thirty thousand francs, and so on.
The army was not forgotten, for Napoleon felt that to be his chief
support. The incomes of his marshals were enormous, and brave actions
among the soldiers were rewarded with the decoration of the Legion of
Honor.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's despotism in France.]
As time went on Napoleon's despotism grew more and more oppressive. No
less than thirty-five hundred prisoners of state were arrested at his
command, one because he hated Napoleon, another because in his letters
he expressed sentiments adverse to the government, and so on. No
grievance was too petty to attract the attention of the emperor's
jealous eye. He ordered the title of a _History of Bonaparte_ to be
changed to the _History of the Campaigns of Napoleon the Great_.[429] He
forbade the performance of certain of Schiller's and Goethe's plays in
German towns, as tending to arouse the patriotic discontent of the
people with his rule.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's European power threatened by the growth of
national opposition to him.]
252. Up to this time Napoleon had had only the opposition of the several
European courts to overcome in the extension of his power. The people of
the various states which he had conquered showed an extraordinary
indifference toward the political changes. It was clear, however, that
as soon as the national spirit was once awakened, the highly artificial
system created by the French emperor would collapse. His first serious
reverse came from the people and from an unexpected quarter.
[Sidenote: Napoleon makes his brother Joseph king of Spain.]
Napoleon decided, after Tilsit, that the Spanish peninsula must be
brought more completely under his control. Portugal was too friendly to
the English, and Spain, owing to serious dissensions in the royal
family, seemed an easy prey. In the spring of 1808 Napoleon induced both
the king and the crown prince of Spain to meet him at Bayonne. Here he
was able to persuade or force both of them to surrender their rights to
the throne; on June 6 he appointed his brother Joseph king of Spain,
making Murat king of Naples in his stead.
[Sidenote: Revolt in Spain against the foreign ruler.]
Joseph entered Madrid in July, armed with excellent intentions and a new
constitution. The general rebellion in favor of the crown prince which
immediately broke out had an element of religious enthusiasm in it, for
the monks stirred up the people against Napoleon, on the ground that he
was oppressing the pope and depriving him of his dominions. One French
army was captured at Baylen, and another capitulated to the English
forces which had landed in Portugal. Before the end of July Joseph and
the French troops had been compelled to retreat behind the Ebro River.
[Sidenote: Spain subdued by arms.]
In November the French emperor himself led a magnificent army into
Spain, two hundred thousand strong, in the best of condition and
commanded by his ablest marshals. The Spanish troops, perhaps one
hundred thousand in number, were ill clad and inadequately equipped;
what was worse, they were over-confident in view of their late victory.
They were, of course, defeated, and Madrid surrendered December 4.
Napoleon immediately abolished the Inquisition, the feudal dues, the
internal customs lines, and two thirds of the cloisters. This is typical
of the way in which the French Revolution went forth in arms to spread
its principles throughout western Europe.
The next month Napoleon was back in Paris, as he saw that he had another
war with Austria on his hands. He left Joseph on his insecure throne,
after assuring the Spanish that God had given the French emperor the
power and the will to overcome all obstacles.[430] He was soon to
discover, however, that these very Spaniards could maintain a guerilla
warfare against which his best troops and most distinguished generals
were powerless. His ultimate downfall was in no small measure due to the
persistent hostility of the Spanish people.
[Sidenote: War with Austria, 1809.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Wagram.]
[Sidenote: Extension of the boundaries of France.]
In April, 1809, Austria ventured to declare war once more on the "enemy
of Europe," but this time she found no one to aid her. The great battle
of Wagram, near Vienna (July 5-6), was not perhaps so unconditional a
victory for the French as that of Austerlitz, but it forced Austria into
just as humiliating a peace as that of Pressburg. Austria's object had
been to destroy Napoleon's system of dependencies and "to restore to
their rightful possessors all those lands belonging to them respectively
before the Napoleonic usurpations." Instead of accomplishing this end,
Austria was obliged to cede more territory to Napoleon and his allies,
and he went on adding to his dependencies. After incorporating into
France the kingdom of Etruria and the papal dominions (1808-1809),
Napoleon was encouraged by his victory over Austria to annex
Holland[431] and the German districts to the north, including the
Hanseatic towns. Consequently, in 1810 France stretched from the
confines of Naples to the Baltic. One might travel from Lübeck to Rome
without leaving Napoleon's realms.
Napoleon was anxious to have an heir to whom he could transmit his vast
dominions. As Josephine bore him no children, he decided to divorce her,
and after considering a Russian princess, he married the Archduchess
Maria Louisa, the daughter of the Austrian emperor and a grandniece of
Marie Antoinette. In this way the former Corsican adventurer gained
admission to one of the oldest and proudest of reigning families, the
Hapsburgs. His new wife soon bore him a son, who was styled King of
Rome.
[Sidenote: Relations between Napoleon and Alexander I of Russia.]
253. Among the continental states Russia alone was entirely out of
Napoleon's control. There were plenty of causes for misunderstanding
between the ardent young Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon. Up to this time
the agreement of Tilsit had been maintained. Napoleon was, however,
secretly opposing Alexander's plans for adding the Danubian provinces
and Finland to his possessions. Then the possibility of Napoleon's
reëstablishing Poland as a national kingdom which might threaten
Russia's interests, was a constant source of apprehension to Alexander.
By 1812 Napoleon believed himself to be in a condition to subdue this
doubtful friend, who might at any moment become a dangerous enemy.
Against the advice of his more far-sighted counselors, the emperor
collected on the Russian frontier a vast army of four hundred thousand
men, composed to a great extent of young conscripts and the contingents
furnished by his allies.
[Sidenote: Napoleon's campaign in Russia, 1812.]
The story of the fearful Russian campaign which followed cannot be told
here in detail. Napoleon had planned to take three years to conquer
Russia, but he was forced on by the necessity of gaining at least one
signal victory before he closed the season's campaign. The Russians
simply retreated and led him far within a hostile and devastated country
before they offered battle at Borodino (September 7). Napoleon won the
battle, but his army was reduced to something over one hundred thousand
men when he entered Moscow a week later. The town had been set on fire
by the Russians before his arrival; he found his position untenable, and
had to retreat as winter came on. The cold, the want of food, and the
harassing attacks of the people along the route made that retreat the
most signal military tragedy on record. Napoleon regained Poland early
in December with scarcely twenty thousand of the four hundred thousand
with which he had started less than six months before.[432]
[Sidenote: Napoleon collects a new army.]
Napoleon hastened back to Paris, where he freely misrepresented the true
state of affairs, even declaring that the army was in a good condition
up to the time that he turned it over to Murat in December. While the
loss of men in the Russian campaign was enormous, just those few had
naturally survived who would be most essential in the formation of a new
army, namely, the officers. With their help, Napoleon soon had a force
of no less than six hundred thousand men with which to return to the
attack. This contained one hundred and fifty thousand conscripts who
should not have been called into service until 1814, besides older men
who had been hitherto exempted.
[Sidenote: Social conditions in Prussia before 1806.]
254. By the end of February, 1813, the timid Frederick William had been
induced by public sentiment in Prussia to break with his oppressor and
join Russia. On March 17, he issued a famous address "To my People," in
which he called upon them to assist him in the recovery of Prussian
independence. Up to the defeat of Jena, Prussia was far more backward in
its social organization than France had been before 1789. The
agricultural classes were serfs, who were bound to the land and
compelled to work a certain part of each week for the lord without
remuneration.[433] The population was divided into strict social castes.
Moreover, no noble could buy citizen or peasant land; no citizen, noble
or peasant land; no peasant, noble or citizen land.
[Sidenote: Reform of the social system in Prussia.]
The disaster of Jena and the losses at Tilsit convinced the
clearer-sighted statesmen of Prussia, especially Stein, that the
country's only hope of recovery was a complete social and political
revolution, not unlike that which had taken place in France. They saw
that the feudal system must be abolished, the peasants freed, and the
restrictions which hedged about the different classes done away with,
before it would be possible to arouse public spirit to a point where a
great popular uprising might expel the intruder forever.
The first great step toward this general reform was the royal decree of
October 9, 1807,[434] intended to "remove every obstacle that has
hitherto prevented the individual from attaining such a degree of
prosperity as he was capable of reaching." Serfdom was abolished and the
restrictions on landholding removed, so that any one, regardless of
class, was at liberty to purchase and hold landed property of every
kind. In some cases the principles of the French Revolution had been
introduced by Napoleon or the rulers that he set up. In this case it was
the necessity of preparing the country to throw off his yoke and regain
its independence that led to the same result.
[Sidenote: Napoleon defeated by the allied Russians, Prussians, and
Austrians, October, 1813.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Leipsic, October 16-19, 1813.]
255. Napoleon had therefore to face now, not only the cabinets of Europe
and the regular armies that they directed, but a people who were being
organized to defend their country. His soldiers were, however, still
triumphant for a time. He met with no successful opposition, and on May
14, 1813, he occupied Dresden in the territory of his faithful ally, the
king of Saxony. This he held during the summer, and inflicted several
defeats upon the allies, who had been joined by Austria in August. He
gained his last great victory, the battle of Dresden, August 26-27.
Finding that the allied armies of the Russians, Prussians, and
Austrians, which had at last learned the necessity of coöperating
against their powerful common enemy, were preparing to cut him off from
France, he retreated early in October and was totally defeated in the
tremendous "Battle of the Nations," as the Germans love to call it, in
the environs of Leipsic (October 16-19).
[Sidenote: Germany, Holland, and Spain throw off the Napoleonic yoke.]
As the defeated emperor crossed the Rhine with the remnants of his army,
the whole fabric of his political edifice in Germany and Holland
collapsed. The members of the Confederation of the Rhine joined the
allies. Jerome Bonaparte fled from his kingdom of Westphalia, and the
Dutch drove the French officials from Holland. During the year 1813 the
Spanish, with the aid of the English under Wellington, had practically
cleared their country of the French intruders.
[Sidenote: Occupation of Paris by the allies, March 31, 1814.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon abdicates and is banished to the island of Elba.]
In spite of these disasters, Napoleon refused the propositions of peace
made on condition that he would content himself henceforth with his
dominion over France. The allies consequently marched into France, and
the almost superhuman activity of the hard-pressed emperor could not
prevent their occupation of Paris (March 31, 1814). Napoleon was forced
to abdicate, and the allies, in seeming derision, granted him full
sovereignty over the tiny island of Elba and permitted him to retain his
imperial title. In reality he was a prisoner on his island kingdom, and
the Bourbons reigned again in France.
[Sidenote: Return of Napoleon.]
Within a year, encouraged by the dissensions of the allies and the
unpopularity of the Bourbons, he made his escape, landed in France
(March 1, 1815), and was received with enthusiasm by a portion of the
army. Yet France as a whole was indifferent, if not hostile, to his
attempt to reëstablish his power. Certainly no one could place
confidence in his talk of peace and liberty. Moreover, whatever
disagreement there might be among the allies on other matters, there was
perfect unanimity in their attitude toward "the enemy and destroyer of
the world's peace." They solemnly proclaimed him an outlaw, and devoted
him to public vengeance.
[Sidenote: Battle of Waterloo, June, 1815.]
[Sidenote: Exile to Saint Helena.]
Upon learning that English troops under Wellington and a Prussian army
under Blücher had arrived in the Netherlands, Napoleon decided to attack
them with such troops as he could collect. In the first engagements he
defeated and drove back the Prussians. Wellington then took his station
south of Brussels, at Waterloo. Napoleon advanced against him (June 18,
1815) and might have defeated the English had they not been opportunely
reënforced by Blücher's Prussians, who had recovered themselves. As it
was, Napoleon lost the most memorable of modern battles. Yet, even if he
had not been defeated at Waterloo, he could not long have opposed the
vast armies which were being concentrated to overthrow him. This time he
was banished to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he could only
brood over the past and prepare his _Memoirs_, in which he carefully
strove to justify his career of ambition.[435]
General Reading.--Of the many lives of Napoleon the best and most
recent are the following: FOURNIER, _Life of Napoleon_ (a
translation of this work from the original German, edited by E.G.
Bourne, is announced by Holt & Co.); ROSE, _Life of Napoleon the
First_ (The Macmillan Company, 2 vols., $4.00). The fullest
biography of Napoleon is that of SLOANE, _Life of Napoleon
Bonaparte_ (The Century Co., 4 vols., $18). An excellent sketch of
the military history may be found in ROPES, _The First Napoleon_
(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., $2.00).