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World history
Course: World history > Unit 5
Lesson 3: Napoleon Bonaparte- Napoleon and the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions
- Napoleon and the War of the Third Coalition
- Napoleon and the War of the Fourth Coalition
- Napoleon's Peninsular Campaigns
- French invasion of Russia
- Napoleon forced to abdicate
- Hundred days and Waterloo
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Napoleon and the War of the Third Coalition
Napoleon leads France to become the dominant power in Europe. Napoleon I becomes Emperor of France. Created by Sal Khan.
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- Is it true that Napoleon briefly ended the Spanish Inquisition?(24 votes)
- Yes it is true, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleons brother became king of spain and completely ended the spanish inquisition and let the prisoners go free this was due to his dislike of then Pope Pius VII who was responsible for the inquisition(34 votes)
- I know this question may sound stupid, but Sal keeps mentioning that Voltaire called the Holy Roman Empire, "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire." Who's Voltaire?(12 votes)
- Voltaire, pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet (born November 21, 1694, Paris, France—died May 30, 1778, Paris) one of the greatest of all French writers. Although only a few of his works are still read, he continues to be held in worldwide repute as a courageous crusader against tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty. Through its critical capacity, wit, and satire, Voltaire’s work vigorously propagates an ideal of progress to which people of all nations have remained responsive. His long life spanned the last years of classicism and the eve of the revolutionary era, and during this age of transition his works and activities influenced the direction taken by European civilization.(6 votes)
- After eight years of fighting Napoleon (since Italy in 1796) what made the Austrians believe they could act in such a tardy manner: ie) The movement to ULM was ponderously slow made by one Army.Why advance into Bavaria rather than wait for Kutusovs army ? Why did General Karl Mack concentrate at ULM?? I know that this was the theoretical position of meeting of Austrian and Russians as per there Grand Plan: but considering they knew how fast Napoleons Corps could move and knew the mans talents why did they not make a junction through a timely withdrawal of Macks Army?? i realise that Napoleon caught them on the hop but it was still a month of movement prior to ULM. It seems that this greatest of victories was as much a Austrian and Russian debacle(i do not detract)as a great victory: they did everything wrong that could be done wrong.(18 votes)
- Karl Mack did try to get out of Ulm, but his officers and men were disillusioned with him, and probably didn't want to fight for him anymore. And according to the 3rd Coalition's 'Grand Strategy' Mack should NOT have moved into Bavaria until Kutuzov had joined up with him.
Also Mack wasn't the most talented of generals and it seems he was slightly insubordinate.
Hope this helps.(3 votes)
- Was it just Haiti and Louisiana that were under France's control? What happened with Canada? What time period did the French have territory there?(8 votes)
- Good Question Ariana! Yes, the French had controlled parts of what is now Canada in the 1600s and 1700s. The French had started settlement in 1604 at Saint Croix Island, in what is now Maine. However, it was the founding of Quebec City in 1608 that true major French occupation started. The French would loose Canada during the Seven Years War in 1759 when it was taken over by the British. By the time of Napoleon, the French did not control Canada.
I hope this helps :)(16 votes)
- Even when nelson died did Napoleon lose the war?(5 votes)
- Napoleon lost because of army attrition and greed. He backstabbed his allies and spread this army too thin. Like German pilots in WW2 if you loose more men than can be trained, or even born, you cant cover all the fronts on a large scale battlefield(13 votes)
- I can't seem to comprehend why/how France let Napoleon get away with crowning himself Emperor and why they allowed him this power for a decade. I know France was in the middle of a revolution and was quite divided in terms of loyalties, but surely there would have been enough resistance to limit him? Was it because of his military achievements? Was it because he was a contributor to public good? I just don't understand why France kept him around for so long...(4 votes)
- Well, in addition to his military achievements, he was the first more-or-less decent and popular ruler they had, so people liked him and wanted him to stay in power (This is extremely evident after his return from exile in Elba). Louis the 16th had been ineffective (the whole "let them eat cake" his wife[Marie Antoinette] said), the first goverments (National Assembly/Legeslative Assembly)after that turned into the Reign of Terror, and the Directorate had been so-so(and overthrown by Napoleon).(6 votes)
- At, did Britain lose any ships in the battle of Trafalgar? If so, how many? 12:28(4 votes)
- The British didn't lose a single ship.
Britain: 31 ships vs. France: 41 ships + Spain: 15 ships
Britain lost 0, France lost 11, Spain lost 11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar(4 votes)
- I've heard that the battle of Austerlitz was the greatest victory of Napoleon. I know he had many victories, so why would that in particular be the greatest?(2 votes)
- He absolutely CRUSHED the combined armies of Austria and Russia, tricked them and surrounded most of their forces. This solidified him as the greatest general in all of history.(5 votes)
- Why did they have a French calendar? How did they come up with the idea?(2 votes)
- During the Reign of Terror, the controlling powers of French intellect and politics wanted to create a more scientific and rational approach to ALL things. They renamed the days of the week, months, their entire calendar.(4 votes)
- I have 2 questions. Did Napoleon managed to solve the foods problems for the people of France during this time period? And how can he crowded himself Emperor and the people still accept his reign even though we all know the people really hate Monarchy and they've been trying to forge a republic ?(2 votes)
- No, Napoleon didn't really solve the food problems.
And he didn't actually make out that he was a monarch. He was called Emperor and not King for precisely that reason, and he was called "Empereur des Français" rather than even "Empereur de France" to make an even greater distinction between his own title and "Roi de France". In the beginning, the people did have more of a say but he gradually gained more and more power, and he and his advisors were quite sly and manipulative. He also had this charisma that just MADE people want to obey him. That was his greatest hold over the people.
Also, calling France an Empire sounded grand and impressive, thus creating a type of illusion of prosperity and success.(4 votes)
Video transcript
Let's review a little bit of
what Napoleon was up to going into the war of the Third
Coalition, which really does establish Napoleon as the
dominant figure in Europe. So in 1799, he takes power. First with two other consuls,
but then he declares himself First Consul. So he takes power. He becomes First-- let me put
that in capital letters-- First Consul. Then in 1802, actually
before I get to 1802. Let me say what he
did in 1800. Remember when he took power,
we were still in the war of the Second Coalition. We talked about that
a little bit. France had lost ground, they
had lost a lot of what they had gained in the First
Coalition in Italy. The Austrians had
taken it back. So Napoleon decides to take
charge, cross the Alps. This is a picture of Napoleon
crossing the Alps. Leading the troops into the Alps
to take back what he felt needed to be taken back
from Austria. And then we learned in the
last video that that essentially is what ended
the First Coalition. So in 1800 he takes back or
leaves to take back Italy. And when we talk about Italy,
we're really talking about the Kingdom of Italy, which
was northern Italy. We're not talking about the
Kingdom of Naples, which was southern Italy. Or the Papal States. Actually let me show you that. If we go all the
way down here. You'll see when people talk
about the Kingdom of Italy in this period of time, they're
really talking about this region up here, which is
really northern Italy. The Papal States
are right here. And you had your Kingdom
of Naples down there. Compared to modern Europe,
the two countries that we associate with Europe today that
really didn't exist in a unified form in the early 1800s
were Italy and Germany. They were really just broken up
into a bunch of kingdoms. And as I mentioned before,
Germany at this point, that confederation of kingdoms was
kind of referred to as the Holy Roman Empire where the King
of Austria had the title of Holy Roman Emperor. But he didn't control the Holy
Roman Empire in a very centralized fashion. It was actually controlled by
a bunch of smaller kings. But anyway, let's go
back to Napoleon. So that's him crossing
the Alps in 1800. That ends when he
takes it back. He defeats Austria. That is essentially the end
of the Second Coalition. We learned that in
the last video. 1801. You had your Treaty
of Luneville. End of Second Coalition. They don't have a treaty with
Great Britain until the next year, really just out
of attrition. But that doesn't matter, it was
a very short-lived treaty. And then in 1802, before we
start talking about the Third Coalition, Napoleon gets
the Constitution of the Year X passed. And why do you say year 10? Remember, they had this whole
revolutionary calendar going. So in the revolutionary calendar
this was the 10th year of the Revolution. But what's really relevant from
Napoleon's point of view is article one. It says, the French people name
and the senate proclaims Napoleon Bonaparte First
Consul for life. So, if you want to view this
is kind of legally giving Napoleon almost a king-like
status, it writes it in words that he will rule France for
the rest of his life. Then we get to 1803. And actually, before I get
to 1803, remember what's happening at the
same time here. You had your Revolution in
Haiti, which, if you remember from those videos, Haiti was
the most profitable slave colony in the world. Once the slaves revolted, got
their freedom, all of a sudden not as profitable to France
as it was before. And remember, the whole French
Revolution started off because France was broke. So Napoleon tries to
reinstate slavery. That essentially backfires
on him. Dessalines catches wind of
it, him and the other revolutionaries. So they essentially
start antagonizing Leclerc even more. Leclerc and the French occupiers
get ravaged by yellow fever. And Dessalines is a very
aggressive general. So he starts losing Haiti. You have Rochambeau, if you
remember from those videos, he's this hugely brutal figure
who takes over after Leclerc. But we have this revolution
in Haiti. And you can kind of say they're starting to lose Haiti. And at the same time, and this
is 1802, and as we're entering into 1803, Napoleon begins to
realize that Great Britain controls the seas. Great Britain dominant navy. And because they're losing
Haiti, which is really their main profit center, and Great
Britain is dominant, Napoleon essentially gives up
on North America. So outside of Haiti, which was
this major profit center for the French Empire, they also
had the territory of Louisiana, which is essentially
the middle 1/3 of what we now consider to
be the United States. And Napoleon figures out,
gee, Great Britain has a dominant navy. I'm giving up on Haiti. I'm probably going to lose
it anyway to Dessalines. Let me just give up on
the entire continent. If I don't sell Louisiana,
either Great Britain or the United States will probably
be in a good position to take it from me. So he decides to
sell Louisiana. So just as someone, or as an
American, and especially an American who was born in
Louisiana, it's fascinating the chain of events that
led up to this. Because when you learn it from
an American history point of view, you just say hey Thomas
Jefferson, he was able to get Louisiana for $15 million. Why would someone sell,
all of a sudden, this huge amount of territory? And the reason is because
Napoleon figured he was going to lose it no matter what. Great Britain had this
dominant navy. And at the same time, he
had nothing else to protect in the area. The other major valuable
asset there was Haiti. So a combination of Great
Britain having this navy and of the slave revolt in Haiti
ends up within the United States being able to acquire
what's now the middle 1/3 of the continent. You can kind of wonder, if they
never did that, would they have ever a gone on to
capture the entire west coast? So these small little
things in history. And I wouldn't necessarily call
these little things, but they lead to very tremendous
changes in our modern world. Anyway, enough about that. So he sells Louisiana. Great Britain has
a dominant navy. At first, Napoleon was amassing
troops up here, he was thinking about an invasion
of Great Britain. But more and more it dawns on
him that Great Britain has a dominant navy. Great Britain, I think, starts
to feel a little self-confident. And they don't like all of the
gains that Napoleon has gotten in the last two wars. So, Great Britain declares
war in 1803, in May 1803. Or I could say United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the same thing. U.K. declares war. And you could view this as the
beginning of the war of the Third Coalition. But it's not a coalition yet. It's just the United Kingdom. Or it's just Great Britain. And it really gets
heated in 1805. Everyone else jumps in. And now we're talking about
a real coalition. Now Great Britain is joined
by Austria and Russia. And Austria, all the time in
every one of these coalitions, they lose territory to France
and especially Napoleon. They just want to get revenge. United Kingdom kind of senses
that they control the water, they want to get revenge. Russia doesn't like this
upstart Napoleon. And so they all jump in. And so there's two interesting
angles of the War of the Third Coalition. Let me write this right here. This is the Third Coalition. And there were other people who
jumped in, but these were the major powers. So this right here is
the Third Coalition. So the first thing that happens,
or really the two almost happen simultaneously. In October of 1805, the French
navy gets destroyed by the British in the Battle
of Trafalgar. This is Trafalgar, it's
actually written here. And they get destroyed by
Napoleon's good old friend, Admiral Horatio Nelson. So this guy was definitely a
thorn in Napoleon's side. He destroyed Napoleon's ships in
the Battle of the Nile that stranded their troops
in Egypt. And now he comes and essentially
destroys the French navy at the Battle
of Trafalgar. And this is an image of it. And I guess the only redeeming
fact of this battle for Napoleon was that near the end
of the battle, Horatio Nelson actually gets stricken
by a bullet and he dies at Trafalgar. So the Royal Navy, the British
navy was already dominant, destroying the French navy,
which was the only navy that could in some way compete
on any level. Destroying them at Trafalgar
really established British domination of the seas. This is actually an image of
the Battle of Trafalgar. This is the battle
right there. A bunch of ships just shooting
at each other, you can't really make out what's
happening. And just to connect that to
modern day Great Britain, or the modern day London, this
right here is an image of Trafalgar Square. It is named after the Battle
of Trafalgar, which established Britain is
dominant in the seas. That is Trafalgar Square
in London. And if you go there, you will
see Nelson's column. This is Nelson's column
right there, named after Horatio Nelson. And at the very top of it,
there's a little figure, or it's probably pretty large,
but little relative to the column, of Horatio
Nelson himself. So that was a bit of an aside,
but this occurred during the war of the Third Coalition. So Napoleon's navy
is destroyed. But he doesn't give up. He's just like, OK, oh well, I
can't do much beyond Europe, but in Europe I can still
do a lot of damage. So what he does is he
takes his troops. He had given up on actually
attacking Britain by sea. He realized that he could never
realistically do that. Let me show you the troop
movements that were going on at this time. So he had troops here that he
had given up on actually attacking Great Britain. And what he does is he
meets the Austrians. So the Austrians are amassing
their troops here. They actually thought that there
was a possibility that the main campaign would
go in Italy. So they actually focused most
of their troops there, that we'll see as a major mistake. But they have troops in what is
now southern Germany near the Black Forest. And then they
also amassed some troops near Italy. And then the Russians were
coming up behind. They weren't able to meet. And we're dealing with the fall,
this is now September, October of 1805. And the Russians were back here
trying to bring their troops to assist the Austrians
in meeting Napoleon. And all of these, it's always
unclear on how much of it was tactical genius versus
pure luck. Because they didn't have
satellites, they didn't know where the other troops were. They didn't necessarily know
exactly what's happening on a minute-by-minute basis,
like armies do today. But what happened, and it's one
of the pivotal battles in European history, is that
Napoleon meets the Austrians at Ulm. Let me draw it on this
map right here. So on this map they just do
a very general-- This is Napoleon meeting the Austrians
right here at Ulm. There's actually a
whole campaign of Ulm, several battles. But it was a decisive
victory at Ulm. And the crux of that victory was
that Napoleon was able to fool the Austrians. So this is a zoomed-in version
of what was going on here. This is France. This is the Black Forest. This
is Austria right there. Blue is Napoleon troops, red
are the Austrian troops. And you saw, Austria had amassed
most of their troops on the Italian front. So here in Black Forest, you
have your Austrian troops. What Napoleon did is he had
General Marat make it look like the main force of the
French were coming straight from the West. And they did
that by having cavalry essentially giving the
appearance of a major force coming in from here. So the Austrians were thinking,
OK, this is the direction that we're going to
face our main antagonism from. But at the same time, the bulk
of the Napoleon's army-- remember he doesn't see exactly
how many people are here, they just made it
look like this is the bulk of the army. But the bulk of the army
actually did what they call a wheeling manoeuvre, where they
went around the Austrian army. And they were able to do it much
faster and in a much more nimble way than anyone
would have predicted. Because they essentially
didn't have to carry as many supplies. They were doing this during
the harvest season. And this was by design. If you capture enemy territory
during the harvest season, and these are things that you
usually don't think about when you learn about military
battles. But you've got troops, you've
got to feed the troops. If they can't capture food from
the land, then you've got to carry supplies with you. And supplies are heavy it
slows down your army. But if you do the attack during
the harvest season, you don't have to carry food. You can just take it from the
farmers that you pass by. They're harvesting food as you
pass by, you just take it, you can be fast and nimble. And he essentially went around
the army and was able to attack the Austrians from
this direction. And then essentially
destroy them. And this is why I hinted in the
last video that Napoleon starts to view himself
as invincible. And this was before the
Russians could come to actually reinforce
the Austrians. So they did it-- by being able
to do it so quickly, they were able to just only tackle
the Austrians. So it was a decisive
victory at Ulm. Let me go to the painting
right there. This is a painting of the
surrender at Ulm. And then the combined Russian
and Austrian forces, they essentially regrouped, but
they re-met Napoleon's forces after Ulm. In another several weeks,
at Austerlitz. And once again, Napoleon
just routed them. And there's always a debate. Some of it might have been
tactical genius, some of it might have been pure luck. But after routing them at
Austerlitz-- so this is Austerlitz-- and taking so much
I guess both in terms of casualties and prisoners from
the enemy without incurring so much themselves, this really was
the high point in terms of a battle for Napoleon. Austerlitz is what really
convinced Napoleon that he is truly, truly a military
genius. And that's not saying
that he's not. But it was such a rout that
he started to imagine that he's on some level invincible. And so the outcome, this
essentially ends the war of the Third Coalition. And with that ending, Austria
had to give its territory that it had gotten in Italy. So Austria had to cede the
territory that it had in Italy, some of the territory
that it had in Bavaria. And from, I guess just a general
point of view, this was historically significant. Because until this point in
time, this whole area was called the Holy Roman Empire,
with the King of Austria calling himself the Holy
Roman Emperor. Even though he didn't have
direct control over all of these Germanic regions. Let me go back up here. This is in 1805, or we can even
say we're entering 1806, but in late 1805, with the end
of the Third Coalition, now the Austrian King no longer
calls himself the Holy Roman Emperor. He gives up the title. And this region right here is
no longer called the Holy Roman Empire. It is called the Confederation
of the Rhine. And it's essentially under the
protection of Napoleon. And this is the first time--
we're starting to get to a point, Germany won't
be unified for another 60 or 70 years. But we're starting to get to
the point that the German nation is escaping from
the bounds of being the Holy Roman Empire. And so it's getting
in that direction. So the Holy Roman
Empire is gone. France gets significant
territory from Austria, once again. Russia on some level is just
humbled a little bit. And then we end in 1806,
or at the end of 1805, with France dominant. And while all of that was
happening, it was really in 1804 when France was only at
war with Great Britain. The whole alliance hadn't
formed yet. It 1804, in December-- and this
is relevant that it's a peek into his ego. So this is the year
before Austerlitz. In 1804, Napoleon declares
himself, or he crowns himself Emperor. And this is a picture
of him as Emperor. And after this point, instead
of being called Napoleon Bonaparte, he is called
Napoleon I. And the idea of crowning
yourself Emperor, you might say, what's the point? You already were Consul for
life, you have power for your whole life. But other than you get this
neat title emperor, which probably feeds your ego quite
well, but beyond that, this essentially establishes
a dynasty. It now says, I'm not
just a First Consul, I am the emperor. I'm Napoleon I. And it implies that his
descendants will continue to reign over the French Empire. So on some level, he
kind of destroys the notion of a republic. So we're ending the Third
Coalition with France is dominant in Europe. It has gotten all of this
territory mainly from Austria. The Holy Roman Empire
no longer exists. It's now the Confederation
of the Rhine. Napoleon, after Austerlitz,
thinks that he is invincible. And he also is now Emperor. So all of his visions of
grandeur are coming true.