In 1799, after the French Revolution had quieted
into the Thermidorean Reaction, a brilliant
general named Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the
Directory and came into power as leader of the
Consulate, beginning in 1799. Under Napoleon, France became a nationalist
power, expanding its territory into Italy and exerting its influence over other
powers. Napoleon consolidated his rule by suppressing rebellions in France,
normalizing relations with the Church in the Concordat of 1801, and
streamlining the French law system in the Napoleonic Code. By 1804,
Napoleon was so powerful that he declared himself Emperor.
Defeating the various military coalitions the other powers of Europe threw
against him, Napoleon won battle after battle: Marengo (1800),
Austerlitz (1805),
Jena-Auerstadt, and Friedland (1807). He built a vast empire of dependant
states, forced Czar Alexander I to ally with him in the 1807 Treaty of
Tilsit, and controlled the majority of Europe. Everywhere he went he spread
the reforms and influence of the French Revolution to a remarkable extent. Just
about the only blemish on his record during the first decade of the 19th century
was a stunning naval loss to Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar
Seeking to undermine Britain's sea power, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree
in 1806, imposing the Continental System on Europe, which was meant to stop
European countries from trading with Britain. Instead of hurting Britain, the
Continental System hurt Napoleon. Upset by Napoleonic rule, Germanic
nationalism got its start, and the Germans began to move towards
Romanticism as an intellectual rebellion against French Enlightenment ideas.
In Spain, the attempt to impose the Continental System led to the Peninsular
War, a protracted guerrilla war that diverted French forces from the rest of
Europe.
In 1810, Napoleon replaced his wife, Josephine, who had borne him no heir,
with a younger wife, Marie Louise of Austria. They produced an heir,
referred to as The King of Rome. Napoleon's happiness did not last, however,
because at the end of 1810, Alexander I withdrew Russia from the Continental
System. In 1812, Napoleon moved his Grand Army into Russia. Though Napoleons
army pushed the Russians into constant retreat, the terrible Russian winter
decimated Napoleon's Grand Army. Napoleon rushed home to raise a new army, but
was defeated in October 1813 by an international coalition of armies at the
Battle of Leipzig.
In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba and Louis XVIII took the
throne of France, returning a Bourbon to the throne that had been lost by
Louis XVI just twenty years earlier. As the
powers were just starting to negotiate a settlement, Napoleon escaped from Elba
and returned to France, raising an army during the period known as the Hundred
Days. Napoleon's army was defeated by Wellington (Britain) and
Blucher (Prussia) at Waterloo in June 1815. He was then exiled to Saint
Helena in the South Atlantic, where he eventually died.
The chaotic Europe left behind by roughly two decades of war was reorganized by
the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). The major powers sent their top
negotiators: Metternich (Austria), Castlereagh (Britain), Alexander
I (Russia), Hardenberg (Prussia), and Talleyrand (France). The complex
and delicate negotiations in Vienna created a stable Europe wherein no one power
could dominate the others, as Napoleon's France had, for quite some time. Not
until a century later, when World War I started in
1914, would another Europe-wide military conflict break out.
