(2) The Rise and Impact of Napoleon: unit 5 & 6 Flashcards

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Napoleon Bonaparte

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A French military leader who seized power after the Revolution and became the dominant ruler of Europe in the early 19th century. He combined authoritarian rule with selective Enlightenment reforms and centralized administration. His career reshaped European politics, law, and warfare.

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Coup of 1799

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The event in which Napoleon overthrew the Directory and established himself as First Consul, effectively ending the revolutionary instability of the 1790s. It marked the transition from revolutionary government to a more centralized, personal rule under Napoleon. The coup set the stage for his later proclamation as Emperor.

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Committee of Public Safety

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The powerful revolutionary body that led France during the Reign of Terror but weakened after Robespierre’s fall. Its decline contributed to political instability that Napoleon exploited to seize power. The Committee’s earlier centralization of authority contrasted with Napoleon’s later authoritarian consolidation.

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Enlightened despot

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A ruler who maintains strong, centralized authority while implementing reforms inspired by Enlightenment ideas. Napoleon fit this model by promoting legal equality, property rights, and administrative efficiency while restricting political freedoms. He blended authoritarian control with modernization and rational governance.

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Egyptian campaign

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Napoleon’s 1798–1801 military expedition intended to threaten British trade routes and enhance French influence in the Mediterranean and Middle East. He brought a large army plus scientists and scholars to study and promote French cultural and scientific interests. Militarily it had mixed results, but it boosted Napoleon’s prestige and scientific knowledge about Egypt.

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Scientists and Scholars

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The contingent of specialists—often called savants—who accompanied Napoleon on the Egyptian campaign to study antiquities, geography, and natural history. They produced important research and helped spread Enlightenment ideas and French culture abroad. Their work contributed to fields like Egyptology and the sciences.

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European Hegemony (1805)

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By 1805 Napoleon had defeated most European rivals and extended French influence across much of the continent, leaving Great Britain as the principal unconquered adversary. This near-hegemony reshaped European alliances and prompted coalitions against France. It represented the high point of Napoleonic expansion.

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Great Britain

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The primary European power that remained beyond Napoleon’s conquest, largely due to its naval supremacy and global trade networks. Britain financed and led coalitions against Napoleon and resisted French domination of the continent. Its resilience was a key factor in Napoleon’s eventual defeat.

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Relatives on Thrones

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Napoleon placed family members and loyalists on the thrones of client states in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain to consolidate control. This dynastic strategy spread French influence and created dependent regimes aligned with Paris. It also fueled resentment and nationalist opposition in those regions.

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Crowning Imagery

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Iconic images, such as Napoleon taking the crown from the Pope and crowning himself, symbolized his assertion that no earthly or divine authority stood above him. These visuals reinforced his claim to supreme personal authority and political legitimacy. They also illustrated the fusion of imperial pomp with revolutionary self-determination.

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Harsh Campaign Conditions

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Many of Napoleon’s military ventures suffered from extreme hardships like frostbite, starvation, and disease that devastated his forces. These conditions undermined combat effectiveness and contributed to catastrophic losses, notably in the Russian campaign. Logistics and climate repeatedly proved decisive against Napoleon’s armies.

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Defeat and Exile

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Napoleon was first defeated in 1814 and exiled to Elba, briefly returned to power during the Hundred Days, and was finally defeated and exiled again after Waterloo. These defeats ended his rule and demonstrated the limits of military ambition. The collapse of his campaigns also revealed the costs imposed on soldiers and societies.

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Napoleonic Code

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A comprehensive legal code promulgated by Napoleon that consolidated many revolutionary gains into a durable system of laws. It emphasized clear statutes, property rights, legal equality, religious toleration, and procedures like trial by jury. The Code influenced legal systems across Europe and beyond for generations.

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John Locke

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An Enlightenment thinker whose ideas about individual rights, property, and government by consent influenced later legal and political reforms. While Locke predated the French Revolution, his theories on property and natural rights helped shape concepts embedded in Napoleonic reforms. His influence is seen in the emphasis on private property and civil liberties.

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Montesquieu

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A political philosopher who advocated separation of powers and legal principles that informed modern constitutional thinking. Montesquieu’s analyses of law and government influenced the design of institutions and the rule of law in post-revolutionary Europe. Elements of his thought can be found in the structure and rationalization of Napoleonic administration.

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Abolition of Feudalism

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One of the revolutionary changes secured and extended by Napoleonic reforms, which removed many feudal privileges and obligations. This abolition modernized landholding and social relations, promoting a society based more on property and contractual relations than on hereditary status. It helped stabilize and legitimize the new legal order.

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Property Rights

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A central principle enshrined by Napoleon that guaranteed ownership and transfer of private property, reflecting Enlightenment and revolutionary priorities. Secure property rights encouraged economic activity and legal stability across Napoleonic territories. They also became a cornerstone of liberal legal frameworks in many countries.

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Legal Equality

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The principle that all citizens should be equal before the law, which the Napoleonic Code and reforms promoted by eliminating many legally entrenched privileges. Legal equality aimed to standardize rights and responsibilities regardless of birth or class. In practice it advanced merit-based civil administration and judiciary systems.

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Religious Toleration

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A policy supported under Napoleon that allowed freedom of worship and reduced religious conflict while maintaining state control over church affairs. Toleration helped integrate diverse populations in conquered territories and reduced sectarian resistance. It was consistent with Enlightenment calls for religious liberty conditioned by state authority.

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Trial by Jury

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A legal procedure preserved and promoted during Napoleonic reforms that guaranteed a group of peers would determine guilt in serious criminal cases. It embodied notions of civic participation and legal fairness from revolutionary and Enlightenment thought. The practice contributed to legitimacy and procedural safeguards in the justice system.

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Exported Reforms

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Napoleon spread revolutionary-era reforms to conquered territories, where he often implemented legal codes, administrative changes, and modernizing policies. These reforms abolished feudal remnants, introduced merit-based bureaucracy, and promoted equality before the law in many regions. While advancing reforms, French rule also provoked resistance and nationalist backlash.

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Abolition of Serfdom

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Under Napoleonic influence, many European territories abolished serfdom and similar labor servitude, transforming agrarian societies toward free peasantry and wage labor. This change increased social mobility and economic modernization outside Russia, where serfdom persisted. The abolition reshaped class relations and fueled nationalist aspirations.

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Conservative Reaction

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Major conservative powers like Prussia and Austria deeply resented Napoleonic reforms and sought to restore traditional order. Their alarm at revolutionary change motivated the coalitions that eventually toppled Napoleon. After his defeat they were central to reestablishing conservative monarchies and limiting revolutionary spread.

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Congress of Vienna

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The 1814–1815 diplomatic conference where European powers negotiated the post-Napoleonic order and sought to restore stability. Delegates redistributed territories, reinstated many monarchies, and designed a system to prevent any single state from dominating Europe. The Congress established principles of collective security and conservative diplomacy for the 19th century.

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Balance of Power

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A diplomatic principle formalized after Napoleon that aimed to prevent domination by any one state by encouraging alliances and territorial adjustments. If one state grew too strong, others would unite to check it, a mechanism applied against France and later used throughout 19th-century diplomacy. The concept underpinned collective efforts to maintain European stability.

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Nationalism

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An ideological and political force that grew stronger under Napoleonic rule as subject peoples reacted to foreign domination and adopted ideas of popular sovereignty. Napoleon’s reorganization of Europe helped crystallize ethnic and cultural identities demanding self-rule. Nationalism later became a driving force for unification and revolution across the continent.

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Haitian Revolution

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A major anti-slavery and anti-colonial uprising in Saint-Domingue inspired in part by Revolutionary rhetoric about rights and equality. Enslaved people fought for life, freedom, and property and eventually established Haiti as an independent republic. The revolution was a global consequence of revolutionary ideas and challenged European colonial slavery systems.

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Saint-Domingue

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France’s richest Caribbean colony, whose enslaved population mounted the Haitian Revolution and achieved independence. The uprising demonstrated how revolutionary discourses on rights could inspire enslaved and colonized peoples to demand freedom. Its success reshaped Atlantic politics and alarmed slaveholding societies.

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Collective Security Precedent

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The post-Napoleonic settlement created systems of multilateral cooperation and alliance-building that anticipated later international organizations like the League of Nations and the United Nations. By coordinating to check dominant powers, 19th-century diplomacy set precedents for collective security and dispute resolution. These mechanisms influenced the development of modern international institutions.

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Long-term Legacy

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Napoleon left a mixed legacy: durable legal and administrative reforms like the Napoleonic Code, widespread modernization, and also political reactions that restored conservative order. His era influenced legal systems, state-building, and international diplomacy for generations. Over the long term, his conquests and the settlement after him helped shape tensions and alignments that contributed to later conflicts, including World War I.

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WWI Tensions

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The geopolitical realignments, nationalist movements, and rivalries reshaped partly by the Napoleonic era contributed indirectly to the long-term conditions that produced World War I. Reconfigured borders, emerging nation-states, and great-power competition created complex alliances and grievances. While not a direct cause, the Napoleonic period was an important step in the chain of 19th-century developments leading to the 20th-century conflagration.