"I love power, as a musician loves his violin", said Napoleon. It was this drive for power that had raised Napoleon and also led to his doom. He made 3 horrible mistakes......
1.Napoleon set up the Continental System
He tried to cut off all trade with Britain. In 1806 he declared no state under his control could import British goods. His navy set up a blockade. All ports on the European continent were banned to British shipping to keep British ships from Europe. He called it the Continental System because it was supposed to make Europe self -sufficient and to destroy Britain's economy.
*It didn't work. Smugglers brought in cargo from Britain.
*Britain set up its own blockade ( it stopped and taxed all ships bound for the continent).
*The result was it hurt the economy of France and other lands under Napoleon.
2. Guerrillas fought the French in Spain
Napoleon planned to make his brother, Joseph, the king of Spain. This outraged the national feelings of the Spanish people.
From 1808-1813 bands of Spanish peasant fighters (guerrillas) strike at French armies in Spain. The British aided them by sending troops to aid the rebels . Napoleon lost about 300,000 men during this war. This fatally weakened the French empire. In Spain and elsewhere, nationalism was becoming a powerful weapon against Napoleon. They felt they were being abused by a foreign conqueror. Like the Spanish, Germans and Italians would turn against the French.
3. Napoleon invaded Russia (His worst mistake of all!)
In 1812 Czar Alexander I refused to stop selling grain to Britain, so Napoleon decided to invade Russia.
He came with over 400,00 men. The Russians refused to meet them in an uneven battle, so Russia retreated toward Moscow, burning grain fields and slaughtering livestock rather than leaving them for the French.
("scorched-earth policy"). This policy greatly weakened Napoleon's army. Desperate French soldiers deserted the French army to search for scraps of food. When Napoleon finally entered Moscow , he found it in flames. Alexander destroyed it rather than surrender it to the French. He waited there for 5 weeks, expecting a peace offer, but it never came. SO he ordered his starving army to turn back. As the snows began in November, Russian raiders attacked Napoleon's army. Many died from cold, hunger, wounds... by the time the army got back only 10,000 were left!!! French army departs Moscow marches back to France.
A coalition defeated Napoleon
Napoleon's enemies (Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden ) joined forces against him in the Grand Alliance.
In 1814, Napoleon gave up his throne and surrendered . The victors gave him a small pension and exiled (banished) him to Elba, Italy.
Napoleon returned briefly
As Napoleon went to Elba, a Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, ruled France. He lasted only 9 months . Napoleon escaped and returned to France in 1815, rallying the people to him. Thousands of French welcomed him back. His army swelled with volunteers. Within days, he was again emperor of France!
The Grand Alliance quickly got their armies out. The British led, by Duke of Wellington (Wellington's Portugal Quarters 1812-1813), prepared for battle near the village of Waterloo in Belgium. Napoleon attacked . The British army defended its ground all day. By the afternoon , the Prussians arrived . Together they attacked the French. Thus ended Napoleon's last bit of power called the Hundred Days. This time he was exiled to an island in the S. Atlantic. He lived 6 years , then died of a stomach ailment.
