Diplomatic History of Europe 1500 - 2000 | Napoleon’s Glory and Defeat (Lecture 12)

Lecture 12: Napoleon Bonaparte made himself the master of revolutionary France, and his military genius allowed him to reorder the European map and to abolish the ancient Holy Roman Empire. A series of coalitions of other European powers sought to contain his bid for hegemony in the form of a Grand Empire. This lecture follows the emperor Napoleon’s remarkable career to his ultimate defeat in 1815. Bestriding the European mainland, Napoleon established both his Grand Empire and a system of allied states linked in the Continental System. At the same time, guerrilla war in Spain portended trouble for Napoleon’s new order. His invasion of Russia in 1812 turned to disaster, and in the wake of his retreat from the snowy wastes, a new coalition, the Grand Alliance, finally coalesced to defeat him and force him into exile. In a brief but dramatic return, Napoleon rallied French forces for a last stand at Waterloo.

Essential Reading:
Ludwig Dehio, The Precarious Balance: Four Centuries of European Power Struggle, pp. 132–80.
Supplementary Reading:
Paul Johnson, Napoleon.