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Authoritarian Republic: The Consulate, 1799-1804. Section 9.46. Napoleon. Understood the importance of a popular mandate B. in Corsica in 1759 Father moved family to France, climbed French social ladder and got Napoleon in military academy Hated French at first
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Authoritarian Republic: The Consulate, 1799-1804 Section 9.46
Napoleon • Understood the importance of a popular mandate • B. in Corsica in 1759 • Father moved family to France, climbed French social ladder and got Napoleon in military academy • Hated French at first • Rose through ranks quickly during Revolution and many nobles had fled • Short, dark, coarse manners, temper, no gentleman but a genius in many ways • Machiavellian, eventually a megalomaniac • Genius with capacity for hours of study in varied subjects • Very admired at first by (Beethoven, Goeth)
Bonaparte as First Consul • Considered the last and most eminent enlightened despot • Presented a constitution to a public referendum (plebiscite) • Accepted 3 million to 1 thousand • Set up ‘a make believe of parliamentary institutions • Gave universal male suffrage • only allowed for the selection and installment of “notables” • Notables were then appointed by government to positions • Had no power on their own (more of a debating club) • Government also had a Tribunate and a Conservative Senate • Little power was exercised outside of the First Consul
Early Accomplishments Made peace • Russia is out of the picture • Austria is defeated at he battle of Marengo in June 1800 and makes peace • Treaty of Lunevelle (1801) reconfirms Campo Formio • Peace is made with Britain in 1802 Domestic affairs are settled • Secret police • Powerful and centralized administration • prefects rule firmly over regional departments • peasants no longer terrorized • Allows the return of émigrés and others
Early Accomplishments • Picks capable and effective people to staff the administration • Talleyrand- minister of foreign affairs and stayed in US during the Terror • Fouche- minister of police had been a Herbertist in 93 and helped bring fall of Robespierre • Used propaganda to build confidence in his leadership • Bomb to assassinate him was blamed on a Jacobin conspiracy • even thou he knew royalist had done it • deported 100 Jacobins • Exaggerated “royalist plots” • Invaded Baden and had Duke of Enghien (a Bourbon) shot • keeps the Jacobins satisfied that they, as regicides, are safe under his rule Charles de Talleyrand Louis Antoine Henri, duc d'Enghien
The Settlement with the Church • Bonaparte makes peace with the Church • Regarded religion as a convenience • advertised himself as a Muslim in Egypt, a Catholic in France, a freethinker among professors • he recognized Catholic revival in France and wanted to eliminate refractory clergy (aided by England) • Concordat of 1801 (with the Vatican) • Pope can depose French bishops and controls the Church in France • Pope (by signing) recognizes the French Republic and raises no question over former church lands • Clergy are salaried by the state • Pope cannot question French toleration • Also put Protestant ministers and the state payroll • Disarmed the counterrevolution • Republic is no longer ‘godless’
Consulate reforms • No privileges were recognized • Citizens were to rise according to their abilities (merit over birth) • Careers open to talent • education came to be a determinant of social standing • So long as it (book) didn’t question the First Consul (Germaine de Stael exiled) • Tax reform • no tax exemptions • taxes were actually collected • Bank of France was created and a new currency was established Staël, Anne Louise Germaine de. 1766-1817
The Napoleonic Codes • curtailed 300 legal systems of Old Regime, thousands of laws past by Revolutionaries into One Code of Five sections • Civil (Code Napoleon) • Civil procedure • Criminal procedure • Commercial • Penal • Made France legally and judicially uniform • Assured legal equality • Left wife with very restricted powers over property • Paternalistic view of law • New property laws to create a framework for an economy of private enterprise • Contracts, Debts, Leases, Stock companies • Sets the character for French life • Socially bourgeois • Legally egalitarian • Administratively bureaucratic
Restoration • In France with the Consulate the Revolution was over • The worst evils of the Old Regime were cured • The beneficiaries of the Revolution felt secure • Working class movement vanished • France was a peace with the Papacy • 1802 Napoleon has himself elected First Consul for life • 1804 Napoleon has himself made emperor • Napoleon I Emperor of the French • Napoleon becomes the terror of Europe • The principle of civic equality proved not only to have the appeal of justice, but also to be politically useful---The resources of France were hurled against Europe