NAPOLEON I 



4085 



NAPOLEON I 



of France as personally as he guided its armies. 

 His Code Napoleon, a system of laws promul- 

 gated under his order, was a concise outline of 

 judicial procedure. He also did much to en- 

 courage elementary education. 



Begins to Dominate Europe. Napoleon, like 

 Caesar of old, had cast longing eyes at Eng- 

 land, and now planned its invasion. War broke 

 out in 1803 and the Emperor prepared to put 

 his plan into execution. Russia, Austria and 

 !en uniting with Great Britain, Napoleon 

 was forced to use his "army of invasion" to 

 ii the continental opposition, rather than 

 to subdue the " nation of shopkeepers," as he 

 described the English. Mack, the Austrian 

 general, was compelled to surrender at Ulm 

 (1805). In the same year Napoleon entered 

 Vienna and a month later completely routed 

 the Russian and Austrian armies at Austerlitz, 

 one of the most brilliant victories of his whole 

 career. Meanwhile, Nelson, by his great vic- 

 tory at Trafalgar, had completely established 

 the supremacy of England at sea. 



Napoleon now set himself to order the affairs 

 of the territories that had come into his hands. 

 He was a believer in the theory that "The ob- 

 > victory; of victory, conquest; 

 and the object of conquest is occupation," and 

 he proceeded to change the map of Europe to 

 his liking. Britannia might rule the waves, but 

 on land the whole of Europe bowed to the 

 will of Napoleon, backed by his artillery, 

 brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was made king 

 of Naples, another brother, Louis Bonaparte, 

 was declared king of Holland, and districts of 

 Germany and Italy were created into princi- 

 I i lilies and dukedoms and distributed among 

 the emperor's favorite, or most successful, gen- 

 erals. This arbitrary proceeding brought about 

 further war with Prussia. But the star of 

 oleon was still in the ascendant, and the 

 year 1806 brought more glory to France and 

 per degradation to Prussia. The battles of 

 Jena and Auenrtiidt opened the way to Berlin, 

 re Napoleon as a conqueror issued the Ber- 

 lin Decree, instituting the Continental System, 

 completely isolating Kngland. 



Advancing against the Russians, he met with 

 disaster at Poltusk and Eylau, but quickly re- 

 covering, inflicted a crushing defeat on the 

 Ilussian army at Friedland, in the summer of 

 1807, and the czar was compelled to sue for 

 peace. By the Peace <>; 



back about half her dominions, and Russia 

 agreed to close her ports against all British 

 >unger brother of Napo- 

 188 



Icon, was made king of Westphalia; Warsaw 

 was created a duchy and given to the king of 

 Saxony ; whole provinces were divided and new 

 ones created at the whim of the mighty con- 

 queror. 



Still there were other regions open to the 

 thunder of Napoleon's armies. Portugal had 

 not obeyed the Berlin Decree. Dispatched witli 

 a large army of invasion, Junot occupied Lis- 

 bon. The affairs of Spain were badly managed ; 

 Murat was sent to Madrid, and Charles IV 

 was dethroned. Joseph Bonaparte was not con- 

 tented with Naples. Here was the throne of 

 Spain ready for his occupation Murat should 

 take Naples as his share of the plunder. So 

 Napoleon juggled with thrones and kingdoms. 

 Europe was outraged, but lay silent and sullen 

 beneath the guns of the conqueror. England, 

 recovering from her stupor, realized the menace 

 in the figure of the emperor, looking across the 

 narrow English Channel, waiting an opportu- 

 nity to strike. Spain was in arms, and needed 

 help to drive out the usurper. Thus began the 

 Peninsular War, which lasted seven years. 

 Meanwhile, Austria had again declared war 

 and raised an army under the Archduke 

 Charles. Napoleon encountered him. It was 

 a case of Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered," 

 over again. At Eckmiihl the Austrians were 

 routed. Himself defeated at Aspern and Es- 

 lingen, the later victory at Wagram (1809) en- 

 abled the invincible Corsican again to enter 

 Vienna as a conqueror and dictate terms of 

 peace. 



Returning to Paris, he cruelly divorced Jo- 

 sephine, who had borne him no children, and 

 soon afterwards married the Archduchess M 

 Louise of Austria, who bore him one son. The 

 principal object of Napoleon was now to crush 

 the disturbance in Spain, and to this he devoted 

 the chief power of his mighty armies. Only in 

 the Peninsula was England directly responsible 

 for operations against Napoleon, but Britain 

 liberally subsidized other movements and it< 

 ships seized French colonies \\h. r. vm possible. 

 In the Peninsula the armies of France were 

 meeting with n verses, and were slowly, but 

 surely, driven out of the country. 



Disaster in Russia. Russia had been 

 literally to cam- out the behests of the Bnim 

 Decree. In 1812 Napoleon declared 

 invaded Russia with an army of nearly 600,000 

 men. The Russians had learned wiwl-.m. and 

 would not face the invaders. Retiring step by 

 step, laying waste the country as th 

 they led the If ;.< h mto the interior. At Boro- 



