Transcript The Napoleonic Empire

The Napoleonic Empire
The Napoleonic Style
Used power of personality
to gain power and position.
No major aristocracy to
oppose his power.
Culture of “Notables”
enacted (those who had
risen on merit like himself)
used to consolidate rule.
Administration and Reforms
Curtailed political freedoms and liberties.
Established efficient central government and
bureaucracy.
– Appointed prefect to administer each department and
sub-prefects for each district.
– Each answered to him, further centralizing power.
Eliminated corruption and waste.
Reformed the tax system; created central bank.
Paid government bonds, putting nation on sound
financial footing.
Reformed educational system.
The Religious Settlement
Napoleon was himself a deist or atheist.
He believed however, that the conflict with
the Catholic Church should end.
The Concordat of 1801 established
reconciliation with Pope Pius VII (r. 18001823).
It governed the relationship between the
Church and state until 1905.
The Concordat of 1801
Granted the Church special status as the religion
of the majority of the French
Catholicism was not the established religion of
the state.
Government had authority to nominate bishops
then invested by the pope.
Bishops would appoint the priests.
System established under Civil Constitution of
the Clergy was ended.
Loss of church lands accepted by pope.
Salaries of clergy paid by the French gov’t.
The Code Napoleon
Napoleon continued
the process of
reorganizing the legal
system.
In 1800, appointed a
commission of legal
experts to draft a new
civil code.
Civil code was enacted
in 1804 and renamed
the Napoleonic Code in
1807.
The Code Napoleon
Made all citizens equal under the law and
abolished privileges by birth.
People could be employed as they pleased, a
gov’t employees would be hired by ability.
Reaffirmed rights of property gained during
the revolution, as well as the bed of
manorialism/feudalism for the peasants.
Included the principle of freedom of religion.
State took precedence over the rights of
individuals.
Men were granted greater authority over
family.
Napoleon Consolidates
Power
January 1804, Bonaparte's police
uncovered an assassination plot
against him sponsored by the
Bourbons.
Bonaparte then used this incident
to justify the re-creation of a
hereditary monarchy in France,
with himself as Emperor, on the
theory that a Bourbon restoration
would be impossible once the
Bonapartist succession was
entrenched in the constitution.
Napoleon Crowned
Napoleon crowned himself Emperor
on Dec 2, 1804 at Notre Dame.
Claims that he seized the crown out
of the hands of Pope Pius VII during
the ceremony in order to avoid
subjecting himself to the authority of
the pontiff are false.
After the Imperial regalia had been
blessed by the Pope, Napoleon
crowned himself before crowning his
wife Joséphine as Empress.
At Milan's cathedral on May 26,
1805, Napoleon was crowned King
of Italy with the Iron Crown of
Lombardy.