La résistance sous Napoléon

A form of government that is not the result of a long sequence of shared experiences, efforts, and endeavors can never take root.

        •        Statement (1803) as quoted in The Mind of Napoleon (1955) by J. Christopher Herold

Diapo citation

By this sentence taken from one of his Statement of 1803, Napoleon ironically depicts the destiny of his future empire, an Empire which never managed to take roots.

In these words, the Consul also refers to a myth largely spread during his reign time:  the image of a people who homogeneously supported his head of state.

Indeed, through his political career and propaganda, Napoleon managed to build his legend, one of the most important in French history as we can see through the numerous books that were written about him (diapo).

The fate of this son of a Corsican family born in 1769 is really impressive. From a simple general of the French army, he managed to become the « archangel of victory » as military triumphs past during the campaign of Italy and Egypt. Aware of the prestige he joyed from in the public opinion, he led with his brother in arms Murat the 18 Brumaire coup on the 9 novembre 1799, becoming at only 28 the head of a politically in shambles state (diapo).

This marks the advent of the Consulate, but it above all marks the beginning of the Napoleonic Europe as the new head of France pursued an expansionist policy which would make him emperor of the largest European empire since the Romans Empire (diapo).

Nevertheless, as I previously said, this Empire didn’t took root as it was a « colossus with feet of clay » according to Michel Winock (diapo winock/livre). In his book l’Invention de la Démocratie, he theorized the fall of the napoleonic empire, which is according to him due to the resistance Napoleon faced in the countries he dominated, but also within his own state.

That’s what we’re intersted in today: how does the po

The concept of resistance was well defined by Pierre Laborie, another French historian, in « L'Opinion française sous Vichy » (diapo), who stated that it is a phenomenon gathering 3 characteristics:

-the will to harm an identified enemy

-the conscience to resist to this enemy

-an involvement in the action
As a csq, resistance can take several forms.
(diapo plan) We’ll firstly study the governmental and martial resistance to Napoleon: to resist to his expansionism and imperialism. Then, in a second part, the institutional resistance the emperor faced will be analyzed. Finally, I’ll present the informal and unofficial resistance among the public opinion.

I- Martial and military resistance: to resist to the Napoléon expansionism and imperialism

Reasons

1. Third, Forth and Fith Coalition: a failure to contain the Empire’s spreading on the Continent

1- Crushing defeat vs Austria: the birth of the Cisalpine Republic

Austria was the first real opponent to Napoleon’s expansionism, but was rapidly defeated. François the First was forced to sign the Treaty of Luneville (slide) and from then several treaties which led to the dismantling of the almost-millenium Holy Roman Empire in 1806, founded in 962. From then, Napoleon became the president of the so-called « Cisalpine Republic » (slide).

2- Political rest

In 1801, William Pitt withdrew as he didn’t manage to obtain concessions regarding the catholic church from the king George the Third (slide). Britains seems weakened on the international stage so they agreed to sign the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 (slide) which led to a period of peace.

1. An eternal rivalry between the now big Continent and the Island

1- First clashes: resistance through naval battles

However, political rest soon came to an end as after only 13 months as a naval battle opposed France to UK, and marks the real beginning of the rivalry between the 2 main powers of the time (slide caricature).

From this point of view, Britain appears as the strongest resistant to the emperor as the battle of Trafalgar (1805) prevented the emperor from invading the Island, only European state he never ever dominated.

2- Napoleonian Empire: the « descendant of the Roman Empire » (R. Rémond)

Despite this crushing defeat on the sees, Napoleon managed to spread his domination on all western continental Europe.

He, allied with Spain, overthrew the kings of Portugal during the War of Oranges (1801).  Nevertheless, he then turned on Spain, and Ferdinand VII (slide) is forced to abdicate by the « entrevue de Bayonne » in 1808. He is substituted by Napoleon’s brother: Joseph.
In 1806, Prussia was defeated and Napoleon walked on Berlin
As a consequence, it enables Napoleon to circle the UK and to implement his Continental Blockade since 1806.

1. The denouement of the « First total war » (David Bell)?

1- Russian campaign: the or the « Great Patriotic Russian war »

The fact that this war is called the « Patriotic war » is really as patriotism was a way to gather Russian people into the resistance to Napoleon. Moreover, the tsar Alexander 1 (slide) opposed to the French order to stop trading with the UK, what entailed the Russian campaign.

Napoleon was nevertheless defeated in Russia, and forced to retreat (on October 19, 1812).

2- The « Restoration improbable » (Michel Winock): real essence of the resistance of a new form of political regime
Finally, the restoration of the Ancient Regime through the Comte of Artois occurred next to the campaign of France. The wars in Europe were eventually a successful resistance as the coronation of Louis 18 deleted any new type of political regime but also model of society.

II- Institutional resistance to Napoléon

1. Within the French institutions and political power: a leader trapped between political disagreements and personal ambitions

1- Within the army

As I previously said, the Great Army was probably he most important pillar of Napoleon’s legitimacy.

However, as victories succeeded, high-ranked soldiers saw their ambition increasing, and some wanted to tackle Napoleon’s authority.

The most relevant example is the one of the Général Mallet who, after having tried a coup in 1809, in 1812 in Paris the death of Napoleon who was at the time campaigning in Russia. He gathered several knowing generals and made 2 storms on the Minister of Police and the Hotel de Ville (the city hall) (slide coup).

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