Why did Napoleon empire fall?
21418258#23
Following his retreat from Russia, Napoleon continued to retreat, this time from Germany. After the loss of Spain, reconquered by an allied army led by Wellington, the rising in the Netherlands preliminary to the invasion and the manifesto of Frankfort (1 December 1813) which proclaimed it, he had to fall back upon the frontiers of 1795; and then later was driven yet farther back upon those of 1792—despite the brilliant campaign of 1814 against the invaders. Paris capitulated on 30 March 1814, and the "Delenda Carthago", pronounced against Britain, was spoken of Napoleon. The Empire briefly fell with Napoleon's abdication at Fontainebleau on 11 April 1814.
First French Empire
216066#30
The rise of neighbouring Prussia during the 1860s threatened French supremacy in western Europe. On July 15, 1870, Napoleon's government headed by Émile Ollivier declared war on Prussia. During July and August 1870, the Imperial French Army suffered a series of defeats which culminated in the Battle of Sedan. Napoleon assumed with himself leading the forces it would be a decisive victory, but he was hopelessly over-matched in strategy, tactics, artillery, and training. At Sedan, the remnants of the French field army surrendered, including Napoleon himself who became a prisoner on September 1, 1870. On September 4, the National Assembly formed a new government. Republican deputy Léon Gambetta declared the fall of the Empire and the establishment of the Third Republic. Empress Eugénie fled the Tuileries for Great Britain, effectively ending the Empire, which was officially declared defunct and replaced with the Government of National Defence.
Second French Empire
62581#156
Napoleon himself proposed on November 27 in a memorandum to Bismarck: After a peace and the surrender of Paris the Prussian king might call the French people to accept Napoleon again as Emperor. But this moment Metz had already fallen, leaving Napoleon without a power basis. Bismarck did not see much chance for a restored empire as Napoleon had looked like a marionette of the enemy. A last initiative of Eugénie failed in January also because of a late arrival of her envoy from London. Bismarck refused to acknowledge the former empress also as this had caused irritations with Britain and Russia. Shortly later, the Germans signed a truce with the French government.
Napoleon III
51170#49
The Kingdom of Holland lasted only four years. Though Louis performed his role beyond all expectations, and did his best to defend the interests of his subjects, this was exactly the reason why Napoleon decided that the Netherlands could no longer be denied the blessings of being reunited with his Empire, though over the objections of Louis. Louis abdicated on 2 July 1810, in favor of his son Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, who reigned for ten days. Then the Netherlands were finally reunited with the origins of the "alluvial deposits of the French rivers," of which the country in the view of Napoleon consists. This reunion did not outlast the effects of the disastrous French invasion of Russia, and the Battle of Leipzig. The Empire melted away, and the independent Netherlands took shape again with every city that the retreating French army of occupation evacuated in the course of 1813.
In the ensuing political vacuum a triumvirate of former Orangist regents, led by Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, invited the former Hereditary Prince (the old Stadtholder had died in 1806) to assume power as "Sovereign Prince." William VI of Orange landed in Scheveningen on 30 November 1813. He duly established control in the Netherlands and was offered the crown of the combined area of the former 17 provinces of the Netherlands (modern Belgium and the Netherlands) by the Allies in the secret London Protocol (also known as the Eight Articles of London) of 21 June 1814, which he accepted exactly one month later. On 16 March 1815, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was proclaimed.
Batavian Republic
55335013#47
Venice thus returned to French control. Napoleon suppressed the religious orders and began large-scale public works in a city that was to become one of the capitals of his empire. In the Square of St Mark's, a new wing was constructed in what was to be a royal residence for Napoleon: the "Ala Napoleonica", or "Procuratie Nuovissime"; a new avenue was opened in the city, the "Via Eugenia" (renamed "Via Garibaldi" in 1866), named after Napoleon's stepson and viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais.
Fall of the Republic of Venice
11668527#1
Napoleon, having returned from the Island of Elba for the Hundred Days, was not able to re-establish the First Empire as it had been before his restoration. He asked the liberal Benjamin Constant to prepare a new Constitution. It was adopted by a plebiscite on June 1, 1815 by an immense majority of the five million voters, although a great many eligible voters abstained. It was promulgated in a ceremony at the Champ de Mars. The rapid fall of Napoleon prevented it from being fully applied.
Charter of 1815
59328873#0
The Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian peninsula took place between 1807 and 1808. Napoleon had made an agreement with Russia at Tilsit on July 7, 1807. This allowed him to turn his attention toward the perfection of the Continental System against the British Empire. On July 19, 1807, Napoleon told the Portuguese to declare war on the British Empire and take part in the continental system.
The answer of Portugal did not satisfy Napoleon, and he ordered Jean-Andoche Junot, a French general commanding a force of 30,000 men, to march through Spain to Portugal. The royal family of Portugal fled to Brazil, and Junot occupied Lisbon on November 30. The French army that conquered Portugal, however, also occupied parts of Spain. Unable to resist the French invasion, Charles IV of Spain decided to imitate the Portuguese royal family and escape to South America. However, a Spanish revolt on March 17, 1808, led to the abdication of Charles IV in favour of his son Ferdinand VII. Napoleon, taking advantage of the situation, sent in General Joachim Murat to conquer Madrid and the city was occupied on March 23, 1808. Subsequently, Napoleon forced Ferdinand to abdicate in favour of Charles and Charles in favour of his brother Joseph Bonaparte. On May 2, a revolt broke out against the occupiers, and the peninsula war had begun.
Napoleonic invasion of Russia
Napoleonic invasion of Iberia
13854#150
In order to ruin the British economy, Napoleon set up the Continental System in 1807, and tried to prevent merchants across Europe from trading with British. The large amount of smuggling frustrated Napoleon, and did more harm to his economy than to his enemies.
Freed from his obligation in the east, Napoleon then went back to the west, as the French Empire was still at war with Britain. Only two countries remained neutral in the war: Sweden and Portugal, and Napoleon then looked toward the latter. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1807), a Franco-Spanish alliance against Portugal was sealed as Spain eyed Portuguese territories. French armies entered Spain in order to attack Portugal, but then seized Spanish fortresses and took over the kingdom by surprise. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, was made King of Spain after Charles IV abdicated.
History of France
4305070#86
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. The wars resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and sowed the seeds of nascent nationalism in Germany and Italy that would lead to the two nations' consolidation later in the century. Meanwhile, the Spanish Empire began to unravel as French occupation of Spain weakened Spain's hold over its colonies, providing an opening for nationalist revolutions in Spanish America. As a direct result of the Napoleonic wars, the British Empire became the foremost world power for the next century, thus beginning Pax Britannica.
History of Western civilization
47555277#4
Early French victories exported many ideological features of the French Revolution throughout Europe. Napoleon gained support by appealing to some common concerns of French people. These included dislike of the emigrant nobility who had escaped persecution, fear by some of a restoration of the "ancien régime", a dislike and suspicion of foreign countries had tried to reverse the Revolution – and a wish by Jacobins to extend France's revolutionary ideals. Seigneurial system of New France and Seigneurial system of New France were abolished, aristocratic privileges were eliminated in all places except Poland, and the introduction of the Napoleonic Code throughout the continent increased legal equality, established jury systems, and legalized divorce. Napoleon placed relatives on the thrones of several European countries and granted many noble titles, most of which expired with the fall of the Empire.
List of modern great powers