Napoleon Bonaparte Chapter 21 Outline
Chapter 21: The Age of Napoleon
I. From Robespierre to Bonaparte
a. Relatively secure after the military victories of 1793-1794, the National Convention repudiated the Terror and struck at the leading terrorists in a turnabout known as the Thermidorian reaction. b. During the four unsteady years of the Directory regime, French armies helped bring revolution to other parts of Western Europe, only to provoke a second anti-French coalition. 1. The Thermidorian Reaction (1794-1795) a. When the military victories over the coalition and the Vendee rebels in the year II eased the need for patriotic unity, long-standing clashes over personalities and politics exploded in the Convention. b. Robespierre’s enemies made a preemptive …show more content…
With Napoleon driven back into France, British troops reinforced the coalition to ensure that it would not disintegrate once central Europe had been liberated.
i. The coalition offered final terms to the emperor: he could retain his throne, but France would be reduced to her normal frontiers.
k. Paris fell in March 1814. The price of this defeat was unconditional surrender and the emperor’s abdication.
4. The Napoleonic Legend
a. For Napoleon, imperial authority –originating with him in France and radiating throughout Europe –represented the principle of rational progress.
b. In his view, the old notion of balance of power among European states merely served as an excuse for the British to pursue their selfish interests.
c. During his final exile Napoleon came to recognize that nationalism was not necessarily reactionary - as one could plainly see in the nationalistic but liberal Cortes of Cadiz in 1812.
d. These memoirs and recollections from exile formed the basis of the Napoleonic legend, as potent a force historically, perhaps, as the reality of the Napoleonic experience.
e. The Napoleonic legend also evoked a sense of granduer and glory that moved ordinary people in years to
I. From Robespierre to Bonaparte
a. Relatively secure after the military victories of 1793-1794, the National Convention repudiated the Terror and struck at the leading terrorists in a turnabout known as the Thermidorian reaction. b. During the four unsteady years of the Directory regime, French armies helped bring revolution to other parts of Western Europe, only to provoke a second anti-French coalition. 1. The Thermidorian Reaction (1794-1795) a. When the military victories over the coalition and the Vendee rebels in the year II eased the need for patriotic unity, long-standing clashes over personalities and politics exploded in the Convention. b. Robespierre’s enemies made a preemptive …show more content…
With Napoleon driven back into France, British troops reinforced the coalition to ensure that it would not disintegrate once central Europe had been liberated.
i. The coalition offered final terms to the emperor: he could retain his throne, but France would be reduced to her normal frontiers.
k. Paris fell in March 1814. The price of this defeat was unconditional surrender and the emperor’s abdication.
4. The Napoleonic Legend
a. For Napoleon, imperial authority –originating with him in France and radiating throughout Europe –represented the principle of rational progress.
b. In his view, the old notion of balance of power among European states merely served as an excuse for the British to pursue their selfish interests.
c. During his final exile Napoleon came to recognize that nationalism was not necessarily reactionary - as one could plainly see in the nationalistic but liberal Cortes of Cadiz in 1812.
d. These memoirs and recollections from exile formed the basis of the Napoleonic legend, as potent a force historically, perhaps, as the reality of the Napoleonic experience.
e. The Napoleonic legend also evoked a sense of granduer and glory that moved ordinary people in years to