Napoleon Terms

Scorched Earth Policy

a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything famously used against Napoleon's armies invading Russia.

Coup d'Etat

a hostile takeover of a government using its own army

Napoleon's Abdication

(April 11, 1814) In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the next year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

The Consolate

The time period when the First Consul controlled f

Second Coalition

the second attempt by European monarchs, led by the Hapsburgs, to contain or eliminate revolutionary France. They formed an alliance to help roll back France's previoud military victories in 1798-99.

Island of Saint Helena

- In 1815 the British government selected Saint Helena as the place of detention of Bonaparte. He was brought to the island in October 1815 and lodged at Longwood, where he died on 5 May 1821. During this period, St Helena remained in the East India Company's possession, but the British government met additional costs arising from guarding Napoleon. The island was strongly garrisoned with British troops, and naval ships circled the island.

Congress of Vienna

- was a conference of ambassadors of European states and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, establishing the boundaries ofFrance.

Battle of Trafalgar

a naval battle in 1805 off the southwest coast of Spain

Duke of Wellington

leader of the combined British and Prussian army; would defeat Napoleon at Waterloo

Fourth Coalition

Comprised of Prussia, Russia, Britain, Saxony, and Sweden, they fought against Napoleon from 1806-7. The war featured several major victories for the French, who conquered almost all of Prussia and Poland; the war ended with the Treaties of Tilsit.

Continental system

Napoleon's policy of preventing trade between Great Britain and continental Europe, intended to destroy Great Britain's economy.

Island of Elba

Following the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Frenchemperor Napoleon I was exiled abdication in 1814 and arrived at Portoferraio on May 3, 1814 to begin his exile there. He was allowed to keep a personal guard of six hundred men. Although he was nominally sovereign of Elba, the island was patrolled by the British Navy.

Treaty of Amiens

It temproary ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Quadruple Alliance

November 20, Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, aimed at upholding the settlement following the Napoleonic Wars: with France's admission in 1818, it became the Quintuple Alliance, though British government distaste for the other allies' reactionary policies meant that it lapsed into ineffectiveness after the mid-1820s.

Napoleon's Retreat from Russia

On 7 September, the two armies met near Moscow in Borodino. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars; it involved more than 250,000 troops and resulted in at least 70,000 casualties. The French captured the battlefield, but failed to destroy the Russian army. Moreover, the French could not replace their losses whereas the Russians could replace theirs.Napoleon entered Moscow on September 14, after the Russian Army had again retreated. But by then the Russians had largely evacuated the city and even released criminals from the prisons to inconvenience the French

Napoleon bonaparte

Overthrew French Directory in 1799 and became emperor of the French in 1804. Failed to defeat Great Britain and abdicated in 1814. Returned to power briefly in 1815 but was defeated and died in exile.

Tsar Alexander I

Ruled Russia during Napoleonic Wars and wanted peace after Napoleon's armied continued winning victories. The young tsar and Napoleon negotiated and he ended up accepting Napoleon's reorganization of Western and Central Europe and promised to enforce Napoleon's economic blockade against British goods.

Third Coalition

The War of the Third Coalition was a conflict which spanned from 1803 to 1806. It saw the defeat of an alliance of Austria, Portugal, Russia, and others by France and its client states under Napoleon I. Great Britain had already been at war with France following the resumption of hostilities resulting from the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens, and Britain would be the only country still at war with France after the Treaty of Pressburg.

Hundred Days

The brief period during 1815 when Napoleon made his last bid for power, deposing the French King and again becoming Emperor of France

Concordat of 1801

This is the agreement between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon that healed the religious division in France by giving the French Catholics free practice of their religion and Napoleon political power

Napoleonic code

This was the civil code put out by Napoleon that granted equality of all male citizens before the law and granted absolute security of wealth and private property. Napoleon also secured this by creating the Bank of France which loyally served the interests of both the state and the financial oligarchy

Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson

When Britain entered the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, Nelson was command of the Agamemnon. He served in the Mediterranean, helped capture Corsica and saw battle at Calvi. As a commander he was known for bold action, and the occasional disregard of orders from his seniors. This defiance brought him victories against the Spanish off Cape Vincent in 1797, and at the Battle of Copenhagen four years later, where he ignored orders to cease action by putting his telescope to his blind eye and claiming he couldn't seen the signal to withdraw.

William Pitt the Younger

a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 (although the term Prime Minister was not then used). He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also the Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout his premiership. He is known as "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who previously served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Napoleon Bonaparte

a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars led against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. He established hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored aspects of the deposed ancien régime. Due to his success in these wars, often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time.

Peninsular Campaign

a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its ally, Spain. The war lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814. Started because they refused the continental system

Concordat

an agreement between the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a soverign state on religious matters. They usually include recognition and privileges for the Catholic Church in a particular country.

Napoleonic Code/Civil Code of 1804

the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified.

Waterloo

the battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat, Located in Belgium, the place where the british army and the prussian army forces attacked the french. Napoleon's final defeat against the British and Prussians

Continental System (economic)

the foreign policy of Napoleon I of France in Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars. It was a large-scale embargo against British trade, which began on November 21, 1806. This embargo ended on April 11, 1814 after Napoleon's first abdication.

The First Consul

the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804. During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul had established himself as the head of a more conservative, authoritarian, autocratic, and centralized republican government in France while not declaring himself head of state. Nevertheless, due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the Consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history."

Treaty of Tilsit

two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in Tilsit after his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River. The second was signed withPrussia on 9 July. The treaties ended the War of the Fourth Coalition at the expense of the Prussian king, who had already agreed to a truce on 25 June after the Grande Armée had pursued him to the easternmost frontier of his realm, and in Tilsit ceded about half of his pre-war territories.

Romanticism

was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the century in Europe, and got stronger in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.[1] In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.[2] It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography,[3] education[4]and natural history.

Battle of Waterloo

was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. An Imperial French army under the command of Emperor Napoleon was defeated by combined armies of the Seventh Coalition, an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army Campaign and Napoleon's last. The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile.