Political History

The revolution gained momentum, eventually reaching Bonaparte, who was serving in the army far from Paris. He welcomed the changes transforming the country.

"He is certainly not a revolutionary before the beginning of the Revolution. But Bonaparte welcomes the Revolution. He feels that the Revolution is going to open up French society, abolish privileges and hierarchies. Bonaparte was a man of his times and to be 20 years old in 1789 is really important. Napoleon’s destiny and the destiny of the whole country become the same."
--Antoine DeBaecque, PBS' Napoleon

In the summer of 1792, Napoleon journeyed to Paris, and on August 10 witnessed the storming of the Tuilleries Palace.The French Republic was proclaimed that Fall. On January 21, 1793, the king was executed. The queen and thousands more followed him to the guillotine. A month later, Maximilien Robespierre, the austere, moralizing leader of the French government, vowed to save the Republic from its enemies at any cost. In the summer of 1794, Robespierre’s government fell. On July 27, the guillotine he made bloody came down on his own head. The Terror was over.

By 1795, a fragile peace was established within France. But the armies of the kings of Europe - Austria, Spain, Prussia, Great Britain – were bent on destroying the new French Republic. Pulling together the remnants of the army, France prepared for war, promising to help "all peoples rise against their rulers." General Bonaparte led his victorious army into Milan on May 5, 1796. Napoleon made himself the head of a provisional Italian government. Those who resisted his rule were shot. His soldiers sacked towns and burned villages. The greatest treasures of Italian art were looted from palaces and shipped to Paris.

Napoleon’s successful campaign in Italy convinced him that he was destined to be a great leader. He personally negotiated the Treaty of Campo Formio with the defeated Austrians, bringing vast new territories under French control. The people of Paris welcomed their returning hero. They looked to Bonaparte to end the political chaos into which the Revolution had descended once again.

But the time was not right for a coup. Not wanting to fade in the public eye, he sought to sustain his glory by further conquests. On May 19, 1789 he set sail with an army, headed to Egypt. When he returned to France over a year later, he was greeted by cheering crowds. The campaign in Egypt, a military disaster, had been a propaganda triumph.

France had become weary of the Directory, and in collaboration with Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Joseph Fouché, and Talleyrand, Napoleon overthrew the government on 18 Brumaire (November 9-10, 1799). The Constitution of the Year VIII provided for the Consulate. Napoleon was named first consul and given virtually dictatorial powers. The trappings of the republic remained--there were two legislative bodies, the Tribunate and the Corps Legislatif--but real power rested in the hands of the first consul. By the end of November 1799, Napoleon had established a new government, rewritten the Constitution, and made himself head of state. As the year 1800 began, Napoleon Bonaparte, now 30 years old, was the most powerful man in France.

Within three years of coming to power, Napoleon completely reorganized France. He set in place a strong, centralized government with a tightly structured bureaucracy. He built new parks, bridges and quays along the Seine, as well as canals, reservoirs, and roads. He founded the Bank of France, which assured French businessmen credit at a reasonable rate. Slowly the economy revived, and prosperity returned to France. All of Europe was in awe.

In 1801, Napoleon signed an agreement with Pope Pius VII - the Concordat – making Catholicism the official religion of France. It restored harmony between Rome and Paris, and it ended the internal religious split that had originated in the Revolution. Napoleon had no personal use for religion, but he understood its political value.

Napoleon also signed the Treaty of Mortefontaine with the Unites States, and sold the Louisiana Territory to Thomas Jefferson’s government. In March 1802, he convinced England to sign the Treaty of Amiens, temporarily ending their war against France.

Napoleon also reformed France's legal system with the Code Napoleon. He oversaw the codification of a new system of laws – the Civil Code or Code Napoleon – which abolished feudal privileges and established the equality of every man before the law.. He forced the nations he had conquered to accept the new laws he had created for France, undermining the centuries-old foundations of European civilization. The monarchs of Europe arrayed their armies against Bonaparte. But time and time again, Austrian, Russian, and Prussian troops were defeated by the citizen-soldiers of the French Republic.

Napoleon felt that he embodied the spirit of the Revolution through his rule. But had no patience with those who demanded greater liberty. He crushed those who spoke out against him, making a sham of parliament and free elections.

"Napoleon believed in government for the people but not by the people. He took the French back to what they probably wanted at the time, which was a friendly monarchy, a benevolent monarchy, or at least it gave the appearance of being benevolent."
--Owen Connelly, PBS' Napoleon

On December 2, 1804 the imperial procession made its way through Paris. In spite of the cold, a half million cheering spectators lined the streets. A little more than 10 years before, the French had beheaded a King. Now, they were crowning an Emperor.

A Senate proclamation and a vote of the people — both carefully arranged by Bonaparte himself - had given him what he wanted. He was about to become Emperor Napoleon I. Napoleon wanted the ceremony to glow with the aura of religion. Pope Pius VII had been brought from Italy to sanctify the occasion.

"He has the genius of making the Pope come to Paris, which gave the everything a sacred air. It is God who confirms that the changes that took place during the Revolution are forever established."
--Jean Paul Bertraud, PBS' Napoleon

As he walked to the throne that awaited him, his brothers supported his mantle. He would soon grant them each kingdom over their own: Joseph became King of Naples and Spain, Louis was named King of Holland and Jerome named King of Westphalia. He created the Confederation of the Rhine, consolidating the fractured German kingdoms, annexed Holland and Rome, and founded the Grand Duchy of Warsaw in Poland. Soon Napoleon’s empire would bring 70 million Europeons under his rule.

Napoleon had inherited the ten-year-old struggle between revolutionary France and the monarchs of Europe, who were determined to crush the Revolution before it spread.

Discontent with Napoleon's iron-fisted rule grew throughout the empire. He narrowly escaped two assassination attempts and a kidnapping plot, all somehow overlooked by his eagle-eyed head of police, Joseph Fouché. By 1808, Fouché and Napoleon’s former foreign minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand had joined in a plot against Napoleon. Victories on the battlefield failed to silence opposition to his rule. The people of Spain, who he thought would welcome him, fought French troops with grim determination. Pope Pius VII excommunicated Napoleon and was consequently arrested. Alexander broke the Treaty of Tilsit with France by trading with England, openly challenging Napoleon’s power.

Napoleon at first hoped to reach America; however, he surrendered to the commander of the British blockade at Rochefort on July 3, hoping to obtain asylum in England. Instead, he was sent into exile on the island of St. Helena. He would never hold power again. There he spent his remaining years, quarreling with the British governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, and dictating his memoirs. He died on St. Helena, after long suffering from cancer, on May 5, 1821.