The Napoleonic Wars generally refer to the sum of the wars fought in France in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Napoleon was the brightest king on the European stage and the most brilliant ruler of the war, but the Napoleonic Wars ended in Napoleon's defeat. After the fiasco of France began to live up to the status of European hegemony, the national strength was gradually surpassed by Britain, in fact, Napoleon's defeat was not incredible, his final defeat was not accidental, but the inevitable result of the development of the war.
First, the history of Napoleon's family
War continued throughout Napoleon's life
Napoleon started with war, the war also ran through Napoleon's entire career, his success and failure not only affected the whole of France, but also affected the whole of Europe, in the large and small wars that Napoleon experienced, there were two defeats that had an important impact on Napoleon's political career, one was the defeat of the Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon became a prisoner, the second was the defeat of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon once again became a prisoner of the order, until the end of his life.
The Battle of Waterloo was Napoleon's last battle, a war praised by posterity, because it has a very legendary color and the most unpredictability, and the reason for the failure of the Waterloo War is also a matter of opinion, many scholars attribute the reason for the defeat of the war to Grousey, arguing that if it were not for Grusey's delay in the fighter, the French coalition army in the Battle of Waterloo would not necessarily lose. In fact, the defeat of the French allies at the Battle of Waterloo is history, and it is certain that one general cannot be blamed.
2. Politics and war complement each other
War and politics are mutually reinforcing relations, and Lenin once said that war is a continuation of politics, that any war has an inseparable relationship with politics, and that the war dominated by a certain country during this period must be related to the political period he has experienced. To explore why the Napoleonic Wars failed, it is important to have a good understanding of the politics of that period. The coup d'état of 1794 made it impossible for the French bourgeois revolution to continue the French Revolution, and had entered the stage of excessive revolution, although France experienced more than ten years of revolutionary turmoil, but the tasks of the bourgeois revolution had been completed, the bourgeois regime had been established, the feudal rule in France had ended, and the peasant problem was basically solved.
The French government did not further consolidate the fruits of victory in accordance with the law of development of capitalist society, but gave up the interests of the capitalists for its own benefit, and also gave up the rare economic stability, when the inflation in France was serious, the currency depreciated, prices soared, the people had difficulties in survival, and some regions began to use the rationing system to ensure basic needs, but even so, in 1797, France's fiscal deficit reached 250 million francs, which was the worst economic crisis in the entire history of France. The cause of this economic crisis is the extravagance of the leadership and the degeneration and corruption of government officials.
3. Napoleon became a sword, conforming to the times
The deterioration of the economic situation filled France with social unrest, and from March to April 1797, the French revolutionaries had the upper hand in the vote of the two chambers, they tried to restore their former interests, and after the coup d'état, the democratic forces won the elections in April 1798, but the Kazuki coup of May 11 of the same year declared the elections null and void, which made the situation more turbulent and the people more disgusted with the incompetence of the government.
The most serious was the Anti-French League in April 1798, when the European continent posed a direct threat to France, under the contradictions of internal and external troubles, France had lost the momentum to continue to advance, the bourgeoisie could not meet the needs of the people, the French at that time explicitly forbade dictatorship, but only dictators could prevent social regression, and some social activists even claimed that France needed a sword, and this sword was Napoleon.
Napoleon had the highest political prestige and the strongest military capital in France, in fact Napoleon was the product of successive revolutionary struggles in France, Napoleon started from the war, promoted his position, and by 1795, had become a commander, shown outstanding military talent in the campaign against Italy, and was fighting in Egypt in 1799 when the French government was on the verge of collapse.
Napoleon, who was far away in Egypt, had a strong political acumen, and he realized that now was the best time to seize power, he handed over military command to others, and returned directly to the south of France, when the bourgeoisie regarded Napoleon as a savior, and under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, Napoleon became the absolute protagonist of French politics. Although Napoleon and the French bourgeoisie were mutually exploitative, Napoleon did increase France's national strength and become the most powerful country in Europe.
Ii. Actions during Napoleon's reign
1. Consolidate achievements and crack down on the anti-French alliance
Napoleon's main task in coming to power was to consolidate the achievements of the French Revolution, and at the same time must defeat the anti-French alliance, otherwise France's internal and external troubles would always exist, Napoleon implemented a series of reform measures to make the domestic environment more stable, and politically Napoleon improved the mechanism and improved efficiency, especially the revision of the new constitution, which made the work of the French government more smooth, but Napoleon also gradually formed a dictatorship. After several years of reform, a dictatorship dominated by Napoleon's will was established, and both the central constitution and local laws had to be based on Napoleon's will.
At the beginning of Napoleon's rise to power, France faced the threat of the European Anti-French Alliance, Napoleon did not want to fight each other in the form of war at first, once issued a ceasefire proposal, but it was not taken seriously, so Napoleon decided to resort to force, and in 1800 Napoleon first attacked Austria. At that time, France's military conditions had absolutely prevailed, and Napoleon forced Austria to sign an unequal treaty. Then Napoleon launched a war against Britain, Napoleon's combat strategy is not only to use force to deter, he will also use foreign policy to make Britain into a situation of isolation, through several years of war, France has achieved absolute superiority in Western Europe, although the French army did not fight in Britain, but the anti-French alliance has disappeared, the French Empire has been unstoppable.
2. France began to be invincible, and Napoleon was invincible
The main reason why the French army was able to win victories at this stage was that the capitalist system promoted by France was in line with the international trend, Napoleon did not go against the times at that time, he not only consolidated the achievements of the capitalist revolution, but also met the needs of the people at the bottom, at that time France loved Napoleon from top to bottom, there was no internal contradiction, and France was naturally invincible.
Iii. The reasons for Napoleon's defeat
1. Expansion is an inevitable consequence
The development of capitalism is bound to bring about practical problems, Napoleon is not satisfied with only the scope of France to claim the emperor, he wants to dominate the whole of Europe, so to plunder, expansion is the nature of the bourgeoisie, but also the needs of Napoleon, when Napoleon was loved by the bourgeoisie, supported by the people at the bottom, he was intoxicated by victory, so he began to expand abroad, hoping to achieve complete domination of Europe through war. Napoleon's goal was to unify the European continent and completely defeat Britain and Tsarist Russia, and in 1806, Napoleon began a trade war against Britain, while Napoleon continued to fight armed forces against neighboring countries, forcing other countries to agree to France's unequal treaties.
The brutal repression of both Italy, Sweden and Spain shows that Napoleon has gone rogue, he no longer wants to become the hegemon of Europe through peaceful evolution, he is eager to become the king of Europe by force, and finally Napoleon has to confront Russia head-on. Before the decisive battle with Tsarist Russia, Napoleon dissolved the nursing home, abolished the civil code, Napoleon truly became the emperor of France, and France also became napoleon's own country, it can be said that Napoleon had completely restored feudal rule before the decisive battle, although some reform measures were operated under bourgeois policies, but Napoleon had deviated from the original intention of the bourgeoisie.
2. Expansion brought resistance, and the French Empire collapsed
Due to the continuous expansion of Napoleon's ambitions, more and more countries began to carry out liberation movements, national wars and national movements flourished on the European continent, Napoleon should stabilize the people's hearts at this time, and then send troops to Russia after solving the civil unrest, but Napoleon wanted to take the war as an opportunity to complete the deterrence of the entire Eurasian continent, this eager psychology, let the French behemoth collapse, it can be said that the Battle of Leipzig basically determined the fate of Napoleon, the Battle of Waterloo is only Napoleon's final song.
3, France's advantage is gone, Napoleon made the wrong choice
By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the nature of the war had changed and the change in nature had also led to the vanishing of France's superiority, the reason for Napoleon's defeat was obvious, it was impossible and unrealistic to complete the expansion of the entire European continent under the historical conditions of the time, the French bourgeoisie, although powerful, needed peace and stability to consolidate the gains, needed to carry out strategic transfer, needed to digest the results, and further developing capitalism was what Napoleon should do, blindly seeking war, doomed to a slim future.
epilogue:
The reason why Napoleon was able to appear on the stage of history was because of the development of the bourgeoisie, and the reason why Napoleon withdrew from the historical stage was because he did not respect the development law of the bourgeoisie, the Napoleonic Wars had a profound impact on the development of the bourgeoisie, France began to decline from the european apex, and was gradually surpassed by Britain and surpassed by Germany, which also doomed France to defeat the position in the First and Second World War periods. Marshall pointed out that the defeat of napoleon's war was actually the end of the era, Napoleon was only a victim of the bourgeoisie, but he himself did not know this, and Napoleon was also a tragic character.
bibliography:
The Biography of Napoleon
Selected Works of Lenin
History of France