An Introduction to the History of Western Europe Part 64

[Sidenote: Importance of the extinction of the smaller German states.]

The final distribution was preceded by a bitter and undignified scramble among the princes for additional bits of territory. All turned to Paris for favors, since the First Consul, and not the German diet, was really the arbiter in the matter. Germany never sank to a lower degree of national degradation than at this period. But this amalgamation was, nevertheless, the beginning of her political regeneration; for without the consolidation of the hundreds of practically independent little states into a few well-organized monarchies, such a union as the present German empire would have been impossible, and the country must have remained indefinitely in its traditional impotency.

[Sidenote: Extension of French territory.]

[Sidenote: French dependencies.]

The treaties of 1801 left France in possession of the Austrian Netherlands and the left bank of the Rhine, to which increase of territory Piedmont was soon added. Bonaparte found a further resource in the dependencies, which it was his consistent policy to create. Holland became the Batavian republic, and, with the Italian (originally the Cisalpine) republic, came under French control and contributed money and troops for the forwarding of French interests. The const.i.tution of Switzerland was improved in the interests of the First Consul and, incidentally, to the great advantage of the country itself.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

EUROPE AND NAPOLEON

[Sidenote: The demoralized condition of France, and Bonaparte's reforms.]

245. The activity of the extraordinary man who had placed himself at the head of the French republic was by no means confined to the important alterations of the map of Europe described in the previous chapter. He was indefatigable in carrying out a series of internal reforms, second only in importance to those of the great Revolution of 1789. The Reign of Terror and the incompetence of the Directory's government had left France in a very bad plight.[419] Bonaparte's reorganization of the government has already been noticed. The finances, too, were in a terrible condition. These the First Consul adjusted with great skill and quickly restored the national credit.

[Sidenote: The adjustment of relations with the pope and the church.]

[Sidenote: The Concordat of 1801.]

He then set about settling the great problem of the non-juring clergy, who were still suffering for refusing to sanction the Civil Const.i.tution of the Clergy.[420] All imprisoned priests were now freed, on promising not to oppose the const.i.tution. Their churches were given back to them, and the distinction between "non-juring" and "const.i.tutional" clergymen was obliterated. Sunday, which had been abolished by the republican calendar, was once more observed, and all the revolutionary holidays except July 14,--the anniversary of the fall of the Bastile,--and the first day of the republican year, were done away with. A formal treaty with the pope, the Concordat of 1801, was concluded, which revoked some of the provisions of the Civil Const.i.tution, especially the election of the priests and bishops by the people, and recognized the pope as the head of the church. It is noteworthy, however, that Bonaparte did not restore to the church its ancient possessions, and that he reserved to himself the right to appoint the bishops, as the former kings had done.

[Sidenote: The emigrant n.o.bles permitted to return.]

As for the emigrant n.o.bles, Bonaparte decreed that no more names should be added to the lists. The striking of names from the list and the return of confiscated lands that had not already been sold, he made favors to be granted by himself. Parents and relatives of emigrants were no longer to be regarded as incapable of holding public offices. In April, 1802, a general amnesty was issued, and no less than forty thousand families returned to France.

[Sidenote: Old habits resumed.]

[Sidenote: The grateful reliance of the nation on Bonaparte.]

There was a gradual reaction from the fantastic innovations of the Reign of Terror. The old t.i.tles of address, Monsieur and Madame, were again used instead of the revolutionary "Citizen." Streets which had been rebaptized with republican names resumed their former ones. Old t.i.tles of n.o.bility were revived, and something very like a royal court began to develop at the Palace of the Tuilleries; for, except in name, Bonaparte was already a king, and his wife, Josephine, a queen. It had been clear for some years that the nation was weary of political agitation. How great a blessing after the anarchy of the past to put all responsibility upon one who showed himself capable of concluding a long war with unprecedented glory for France and of reestablis.h.i.+ng order and the security of person and property, the necessary conditions for renewed prosperity! How natural that the French should welcome a despotism to which they had been accustomed for centuries, after suffering as they had under nominally republican inst.i.tutions!

[Sidenote: The _Code Napoleon_.]

One of the greatest and most permanent of Bonaparte's achievements still remains to be noted. The heterogeneous laws of the old regime had been much modified by the legislation of the successive a.s.semblies. All this needed a final revision, and Bonaparte appointed a commission to undertake this great task. Their draft of the new code was discussed in the Council of State, and the First Consul had many suggestions to make.

The resulting codification of the civil law--the _Code Napoleon_--is still used to-day, not only in France, but also, with some modifications, in Rhenish Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and even in the state of Louisiana. The criminal and commercial law was also codified. These codes carried with them into foreign lands the principles of equality upon which they were based, and thus diffused the benefits of the Revolution beyond the borders of France.[421]

[Sidenote: Napoleon made Consul for life, 1802; and Emperor, 1804.]

Bonaparte was able gradually to modify the const.i.tution so that his power became more and more absolute. In 1802 he was appointed Consul for life and given the right to name his successor. Even this did not satisfy his insatiable ambition, which demanded that his actual power should be clothed with all the attributes and surroundings appropriate to an hereditary ruler. In May, 1804, he was accordingly given the t.i.tle of Emperor, and (in December) crowned, as the successor of Charlemagne, with great pomp in the cathedral of Notre Dame. He at once proceeded to establish a new n.o.bility to take the place of that abolished by the first National a.s.sembly in 1790.

[Sidenote: Napoleon's censors.h.i.+p of the press.]

From this time on he became increasingly tyrannical and hostile to criticism. At the very beginning of his administration he had suppressed a great part of the numerous political newspapers and forbidden the establishment of new ones. As emperor he showed himself still more exacting. His police furnished the news to the papers and carefully omitted all that might offend their suspicious master. He ordered the journals to "put in quarantine all news that might be disadvantageous or disagreeable to France." His ideal was to suppress all newspapers but one, which should be used for official purposes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Napoleon]

[Sidenote: Napoleon on the necessity of war for France.]

246. A great majority of the French undoubtedly longed for peace, but Napoleon's position made war a personal necessity for him. No one saw this more clearly than he. "If," he said to his Council of State in the summer of 1802, "the European states intend ever to renew the war, the sooner it comes the better. Every day the remembrance of their defeats grows dimmer and at the same time the prestige of our victories pales.... France needs glorious deeds, and hence war. She must be the first among the states, or she is lost. I shall put up with peace as long as our neighbors can maintain it, but I shall regard it as an advantage if they force me to take up my arms again before they are rusted.... In our position I shall look on each conclusion of peace as simply a short armistice, and I regard myself as destined during my term of office to fight almost without intermission."

[Sidenote: Napoleon dreams of becoming emperor of Europe.]

On another occasion, in 1804, Napoleon said, "There will be no rest in Europe until it is under a single chief--an emperor who shall have kings for officers, who shall distribute kingdoms to his lieutenants, and shall make this one king of Italy, that one of Bavaria; this one ruler of Switzerland, that one governor of Holland, each having an office of honor in the imperial household." This was the ideal that he now found himself in a situation to carry out with marvelous exactness.

[Sidenote: Reasons for England's persistent opposition to Napoleon.]

There were many reasons why the peace with England (concluded at Amiens in March, 1802) should be speedily broken, especially as the First Consul was not averse to a renewal of the war. The obvious intention of Napoleon to bring as much of Europe under his control as he could, and the imposition of high duties on English goods in those territories that he already controlled, filled commercial and industrial England with apprehension. The English people longed for peace, but peace appeared only to offer an opportunity to the Corsican usurper to ruin England by a continuous war upon her commerce. This was the secret of England's pertinacity. All the other European powers concluded peace with Napoleon at some time during his reign. England alone did not lay down her arms a second time until the emperor of the French was a prisoner.

[Sidenote: War between France and England renewed in 1803.]

[Sidenote: Napoleon inst.i.tutes a coast blockade.]

247. War was renewed between England and France in 1803. Bonaparte promptly occupied Hanover, of which it will be remembered that the English king was elector, and declared the coast blockaded from Hanover to Otranto. Holland, Spain, Portugal, and the Ligurian republic--formerly the republic of Genoa--were, by hook or by crook, induced to agree to furnish each their contingent of men or money to the French army and to exclude English s.h.i.+ps from their ports.

[Sidenote: Napoleon threatens to invade England.]

To cap the climax, England was alarmed by the appearance of a French army at Boulogne, just across the Channel. A great number of flatboats were collected, and troops trained to embark and disembark. Apparently Napoleon harbored the firm purpose of invading the British Isles. Yet the transportation of a large body of troops across the English Channel, trifling as is the distance, would have been very hazardous, and by many it was deemed downright impossible. No one knows whether Napoleon really expected to make the trial. It is quite possible that his main purpose in collecting an army at Boulogne was to have it in readiness for the continental war which he saw immediately ahead of him. He succeeded, at any rate, in terrifying England, who prepared to defend herself.

[Sidenote: Coalition of Russia, Austria, England, and Sweden.]

[Sidenote: Napoleon king of Italy.]

The Tsar, Alexander I, had submitted a plan for the reconciliation of France and England in August, 1803. The rejection of this and the evident intention of Napoleon to include the eastern coast of the Adriatic in his sphere of influence, led Russia to join a new coalition which, by July, 1805, included Austria, Sweden, and, of course, England.

Austria was especially affected by the increase of Napoleon's power in Italy. He had been crowned king of Italy in May, 1805, had created a little duchy in northern Italy for his sister, and had annexed the Ligurian republic to France. There were rumors, too, that he was planning to seize the Venetian territories of Austria.

[Sidenote: The war of 1805.]

[Sidenote: Occupation of Vienna.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Austerlitz, December 2, 1805.]

War was declared against Austria, August 23, and four days later the army at Boulogne was ordered eastward. One of the Austrian commanders exhibited the most startling incapacity in allowing himself to be shut up in Ulm, where he was forced to capitulate with all his troops (October 20). Napoleon then marched down the Danube with little opposition, and before the middle of November Vienna was in the possession of French troops. Napoleon thereupon led his forces north to meet the allied armies of Austria and Russia; these he defeated on December 2, in the terrible winter battle of Austerlitz. Russia then withdrew for a time and signed an armistice; and Austria was obliged to submit to a humiliating peace, the Treaty of Pressburg.

[Sidenote: The Treaty of Pressburg.]

By this treaty Austria recognized all Napoleon's changes in Italy, and ceded to his kingdom of Italy that portion of the Venetian territory that she had received at Campo-Formio. Moreover, she ceded Tyrol to Bavaria, which was friendly to Napoleon, and other of her possessions to Wurtemberg and Baden, also friends of the French emperor. She further agreed to ratify the a.s.sumption, on the part of the rulers of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, of the t.i.tles of King. Napoleon was now in a position still further to reorganize western Europe, with a view to establis.h.i.+ng a great international federation of which he should be the head.[422]

[Sidenote: The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806.]

248. Napoleon had no desire to unify Germany; he merely wished to maintain a certain number of independent states, or groups of states, which he could conveniently control. He had provided, in the Treaty of Pressburg, that the newly created sovereigns should enjoy the "plenitude of sovereignty" and all the rights derived therefrom, precisely as did the rulers of Austria and Prussia.

This, by explicitly declaring several of the most important of the German states altogether independent of the emperor, rendered the further existence of the Holy Roman Empire impossible. The emperor, Francis II, accordingly abdicated, August 6, 1806. Thus the most imposing and enduring political office known to history was formally abolished.