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CONTENTS
 Napoleon:
An Overview
 The rise of Napoleon
 Newton's Mysticism
 Newton's Writings |
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The siege of Toulon. Napoleon
first came to the attention of French Revolutionary authorities for his
part in the December 1793 victory at the southern French naval port of
Toulon of Revolutionary troops over French Royalists and their English
and Spainish allies. Napoleon commanded the artillery units overseeing
the city - whose well-placed bombardments forced the Revolution's enemies
to withdraw. (Under the direction of Paul Barras and Stanislas Fr?ron,
the city was subsequently put to the sword for its support of the anti-Revolutionary
forces. However, just prior to the massacre Napoleon had moved on
to Nice).
Napoloen's brief eclipse. He subsequently underwent disgrace for his associations with Robespierre, who fell politically in July of 1794 - and for his refusal to serve in the Vendée in putting down anti-Revolutionary rebels there. 13 Vendémiaire. But violence broke out in Paris that October when the new government, the Directory, failed to include royalists in its membership. Barras, remembering Napoleon's military skills, called on him to come to Paris to put down the royalist rebellion. Napoleon arrived and organized artillery units to fire on the royalist rebels - killing many (1400) and scattering the rest. This brought widespread fame to Napoleon as the savior of the new Revolutionary government. Napoleon was subsequently named Commander of the Interior - and given command over the Republic's Army of Italy. The first Italian campaign. In March of 1796 he led his army into Italy to face the Austrian army there. First encountering some difficulties he was able after a number of battles to expell the Austrians (ultimately the Battle of Arcole) from Italy - and even bring the Papal states under French control. The following year 1797 he invaded Austria and forced Austria to recognize French control over northern Italy - as well as French control over the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). As part of the deal (finalized in the Treaty of Campo Formio) he handed Venice over to Austria - ending that city-states's 1000-year existence as an independent empire. In December of 1797 he returned to
Paris - a national hero.
The coup of 18 Fructidor.
But in the meantime Napoleon had been maneuvering in and out of Paris politics.
Elections in mid 1797 had increased the position of the 'moderates' and
even the royalists in the French legislature - and likewise increased the
criticism of Napoleon (for his independence of action in dealing with the
Austrians) and of his allies on the Directory. In early September
Barras (with Napoleon's vital support) organized a military coup which
purged the Legislature of these 'conservative' political enemies - bringing
France back under a new reign of 'leftist' political and social
repression. |
Paul Barras (Paul François
Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras)
The most powerful member
of the French Directory government (1795-1799)
and strong supporter of
(and strongly supported by) Napoleon during this period
Napoleon's artillery firing on royalists in front of the Church of Saint-Roch - Paris
October 5, 1795 (13 Vendémiaire of Year IV) ... bringing Napoleon to great notice!
Napoléon Bonaparte leading
his troops over the bridge of Arcole (November 17, 1796)
- by Horace
Vernet
Napoléon Bonaparte at the
Bridge of Arcole – by Antoine-Jean Gros (c. 1801)
Musée du Louvre
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Napoleon's anti-English strategy.
Napoleon now turned his attention to France's old enemy, England.
His intentions at first were to invade England - though further reflection
revealed that the French navy was not yet ready for such a feat.
He decided instead to aim at England's economic and imperial links with
Asia - with the intent of undercutting the English economy and replacing
English influence in Asia with French influence. His ultimate goal
was to eliminate the English hold over India by encouraging anti-English
Indian rebellion. More immediately his plan was to establish a strong
French base in Egypt - just astride the British trade route to the East.
The Directory was hesitant about the cost involved in such a major expedition - but ultimately glad to get Napoleon out of France, where his popularity easily exceeded theirs. In the late spring of 1798 Napoleon embarked for Egypt, capturing Malta as a resupply port along the way. He landed in Alexandria in July and was met by the army of the Mameluk ruler of Egpyt. At the 'Battle of the Pyramids' (July21) he crushed the Egyptians, scattering his opponents, some who moved southward up the Nile and others who moved to Syria to attempt to regroup there. But the British had been close behind Napoleon and met his Navy on August 1 to fight the 'Battle of the Nile.' This time it was the French who received the crushing - at the hands of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson. This French defeat left Napoleon and his army stranded in Egypt. Nonetheless Napoleon continued his consolidation of French power in Egypt - despite continuing Mamaluk resistance. Much of the venture was actually an archeological expedition - as French scientists gathered Egyptian antiquities in great number (including the Rosetta Stone). Encouraged by news of Napoleon's defeat by the British Navy, the Ottoman sultan Selim III decided to mass an army to drive Napoleon out of his lands. But Napoleon decided that rather than wait for the sultan to gather an overwhelming force, he would move to the offensive first - striking out in February of 1799 toward Syria, capturing the key city of Jaffa along the way. But the fortress at Acre proved resistant, his supplies were rapidly dwingling, and his men were suffering from the plague. Thus in May Napoleon was forced to retreat back to Egypt. However, an Ottoman fleet sent out to Egypt to engage Napoleon in July was defeated by the French - helping Napoleon to recover some of his reputation lost the previous year at the Battle of the Nile. |
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Napoléon on his Imperial
throne – Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1806)
Joséphine de Beauharnais – François Gérard (1808)
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Josephine's first husband was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Napoleon married her in 1796 ... but divorced her in 1810 – not having any children resulting from their marriage (she did have children by her first marriage ... including the future Napoleon III). Napoleon still loved her deeply ... and mourned her death deeply while he was still confined to the Island of Elba. Nonetheless, he married the Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise, in 1810 ... as a diplomatic move to improve French-Austrian relations (Marie-Louise would remarry after Napoleon's death in 1821). |
The French mathematician
and astronomer Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace
(March 23, 1749 -
March 5, 1827)
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Napoléon crossing the Alps
– Spring of 1800 – Jacques Louis David
Bonaparte led the French
Army over the Alps (actually on a mule!),
eventually defeating the Austrians
at Marengo.
Musée national du château
de Malmaison
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King George III by Sir William
Beechey (1799–1800)
London, National Portrait
Gallery
William Pitt the Younger
- Attributed to Thomas Gainsborough (c. 1804)
Prime Minister 1783 –
1801; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1804 – 1806
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount
of Nelson as Vice Admiral - by Lemuel Francis Abbott
Admiral Nelson shot on the
quarterdeck of Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar - (October 21,
1805)
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke
of Wellington - by Robert Home (1804)
National Portrait Gallery,
London
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The Battle of Borodino, August 26, 1812 – Peter von Hess – 1843
Napoléon's retreat from Moscow
– Adolph Northern
"In 1812" – Illarion
Prianishnikov
August 1813 - Napoleon's newly reassembled 350,000-man army defeats (but does not discourage)
a new anti-French coalition comprised at the time of Russian, Austria, and Prussia
Napoleon and Poniatowski at Leipzig (October 18, 1813)
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| The anti-French coalition was joined by Sweden ... and at the Battle of Leipzig, the French were defeated. In November, the allies offered Napoleon peace terms. He could keep his position as emperor in France and hold French territory in Belgium, the Rhineland ... but he would have to give up his position in Spain, the Netherlands and most of Italy and Germany. But Napoleon did not accept the terms ... until it became rather immediately obvious that his position had weakened deeply. But then the coaltion merely stiffened its terms against France ... and marched coalition troops even across French borders in January of 1814. Napoleon was able to hold off the coalition forces for a while. But by the end of March the coaltion had reached the outskirts of Paris. At the beginning of April it was obvious that Napoleon was a defeated monarch. |
Napoleon signs his abdication at Fontainebleau - April 11, 1814 - by Francois Bouchot
Palace of Versailles
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Napoleon is exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of northwestern Italy ... where he is given the right to govern the small island as "emperor. However,
the following February (1815) he escaped Elba in order to return to
France and attempt a restoration of his power there. In the meantime, the Bourbon monarchy had been restored by the coalition, with Louis XVIII retaking the French throne in 1814. But Napoleon's return – and the military switching its loyalties to Napoleon – caused Louis XVIII to flee to the Netherlands. |
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But Napoleon would hold his position in France only for "a Hundred Days" ... before coaliton forces (British, Dutch, and German) met Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815. But French marshal Ney's cavalry was not able to break the ranks of British general Wellington's infantry square – despite numerous assaults. And the arrival of Blücher's Prussians merely swing the strength even more greatly to the coalition's side. |
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The
following day, the exhausted French were forced to fall back ... as the
coalition began its advance on Paris. Within a few days Napoleon
realized that further resistance was pointless (French support for his
rule was fading quickly) ... and finally announced his second
abdication on June 24th. There
was no path of escape available for Napoleon and on July 15th he
surrendered himself ot the British ... who then exhiled him to St.
Helena, a small island in the middle of the South Atlantic. There would
be no possiblity of escape this time. |
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Miles
H. Hodges
