Euro History

Chapter 19: The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism 1. The of Napoleon Bonaparte a. The chief threat to the Directory came form royalists who hoped to restore the Bourbon monarchy by legal means. Many of the émigrés had returned to France and their plans for a restoration drew support from devout Catholics and from citizens disgusted from the outcome of the revoulution. Monarchy promised stability. b. The spring elections of 1797 replaced most incumbents with constitutional monarchists, giving them a majority in the national legislature. At the request of the Directors, Napoleon Bonaparte, the general in charge of the French invasion of Italy, had sent a subordinate to Paris to guarantee the success of the coup. 2. Early Victories of Napoleon c. Napoleon’s invasion of Italy was aimed towards depriving Austria of its rich Northern-Italian province of Lombardy. Napoleon was able to crush the Austrian and Sardinian armies. This skirmish was concluded with the Treaty of Campo Formio in Oct. 1797. This took Austria out of the war and crowned Napoleon’s campaign with success, allowing France to control all of Italy and Switzerland. d. In November 1797, Napoleon returned home to confront France’s only remaining enemy, Britain. Instead of crossing the channel and invading Britain directly, Napoleon instead decided to attack Egypt from the Ottoman Empire. i. Napoleon easily overran Egypt, but the invasion was a failure because the French fleet was destroyed in 1798, cutting off the army form France. The Ottoman, Russians, Austrians, and British joined together to create the Second Coalition Against France in 1799 and the Russians and Austrians retook Italy and Switzerland from French control. 3. The Constitution of the Year VIII e. A new constitution was proposed by Abbe Sieyes. He wanted an executive body independent of the whims of electoral politics, a government based on the principle of “confidence