By: Darby Shepard
Napoleon's Rise to power
Early Life
- Born into a minor noble family
- Studied at French military school
- Became an officer in King Louis XVI (16th)’s army
- At age 24, Napoleon’s brilliance led him to become a general
- Supported the revolution and defended the Directory against a popular uprising
- He established French rule in northern Italy by driving out the Austrian army
- Napoleon overthrew the Directory after Austria, Russia, and Britain formed an alliance to attack France
After Overthrowing the Directory
- After overthrowing the Directory, Napoleon
imposed a new constitution
- He named himself first consul and had almost
unchecked power
- He later became consul for life, and later
crowned himself emperor
- Brought political stability to a wrecked region
- Made peace with the Roman Catholic church
- He concluded an agreement with the pope known as
the Concordat
- Concordat:
- Provided that the French state would keep church
lands taken during the revolution
- French had to pay clerics’ salaries
- Recognize Roman Catholic Christianity as the
preferred faith
- Allow religious tolerance to Protestant
Christians and Jews
- Provided that the French state would keep church
lands taken during the revolution
- People who supported the political and social
goals of the revolution supported the Concordat
- However, some balked at radicals’ efforts to
replace Christianity with a cult of reason
- Later Napoleon spread the Civil Code
- Civil Code:
- A revised body of civil law
- Confirmed the political and legal equality of
all adult men
- Established merit-based society where talent was
looked at instead of social standing
- Protected private property
- Restored patriarchal authority, males above the
women and children
- A revised body of civil law
- Napoleon liked the idea of equality, but limited
speech and censored many things
- Established a secret police, or spies, to detain
political opponents
- Used propaganda to manipulate people
- Imaginative tactician and strategist
- His armies conquered the Iberian and Italian
peninsulas
- Napoleon
sent his brothers and other relatives to rule the conquered and occupied lands
- When he decided to invade Russia, the empire
started to decline
- He was unprepared to battle the cold and it
literally killed his army
- This was humiliating for Napoleon