HOW DID NAPOLEON DEAL WITH POLITICAL OPPOSITION? Flashcards
jacobin support base
- lower ranks of the army.
- Urban working-class, especially in Paris.
jacobin beliefs and aims
- Democratic Republic
- Believed Napoleon’s accumulation of power was a betrayal of revolutionary principles
jacobin repression
- used spies to infiltrate jacobin groups
- strict policing and censorship
- wrongfully blamed for the abortive bomb plot in the infernal machine in december 1800
- 129 jacobins were deported
1801, 129 jacobin leaders were arrested and deported to the seychelles or Guiana
civil servants thought to be jacobin sympathisers were dismissed
jacobin reconciliation
talks of relliment
no real reconciliation but napoleon presented himself to the people as a variable and strong alternative
royalist support base
- Émigrés
- Foreign powers
- Strong in the west of France.
royalist beliefs and aims
- Reverse the changes of the revolution (which they felt Napoleon was maintaining)
- Favoured a return to the Bourbon dynasty.
royalist repression
- september 1800 wrote th the comte de provence warning him to not return to france
- used military tribunal to deal with rebel leaders
- sent Holland to deal with those who refused napoleon offer of a truce
- in 1800 , 6,000 chuan prisoners were taken and 750 shot
- duc d’Enghien was kidnapped and wrongly accused bearing arms against the republic receiving funds from england and plotting
- april 1800 chouannerie had been crushed by the Army
- plotters had been deported, exiled or jailed
- amnesty was short lived (2 weeks)
- general Brune was ordered to use the utmost techniques to crush royal rebellion
- no rebellion after april 1802
- others were exiled and potential troublemakers were dealt with
royalist reconciliation
offered generous amnesty to rebels in the west who were prepared to lay down their arms and give their support
repealed the law of hostages
140,000 emigres returned to france by 1802
promised to protect the catholic religion
reinstated sunday worship (rest day)
concordat of 1801
made overtures to emigres and refractory priest and offered rewards and post to those prepared to support him
key liberals
Benjamin Constant – moderate Republican. He went into exile in 1803 when he saw how Napoleon was advancing his own position. He returned in 1814
Madame de Staël – Constant’s mistress and Necker’s daughter. Escaped France during the Terror but returned to set up a salon for the discussion of liberal political ideas during the Directory. Welcomed Napoleon at first but her criticisms of Napoleon led to her exile 1804-14.
liberals aims and beliefs
- Believed that Napoleon was creating a dictatorship to the detriment of the people.
- Did not believe in ‘mob rule’ and feared the power of the lower classes.
- They did want a fair constitution guaranteeing rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
liberals repression
1803 banished constant and madame de stael 64 km from paris
The criticism was hard to publish as :
minister of police made sure no new newspapers were published and any articles that were contrary to social order were suppressed immediately
liberals reconciliation
reconciled with the bourgeois as he had managed to achieve stability abroad
by 1802 the war of the second coalition had ended and france was able to trade with england after 9 years of fighting
better alternative to royalist and neo jacobins
achieved stability by putting down royalist threats
how successful was napoleon in dealing with opposition by 1804
by 1804 opposition had been contained and repressed
there were no further large scale uprising during the napoleonic period
radical political oppositions mostly nurtured in 1800
had become extremely difficult and dangerous to be a left wing threats
potential threats from across the political spectrum were either forced into exile or dealt with
moderates were wooed by napoleon’s reconciliation measures
