Napoleon Chapter Summaries

The material studied in this class regarding how Napoleon spread his ideology around Europe is the essence of this book. It goes in depth about how exactly Napoleon installed policy reforms and new governments that would come to the fruition of modernity. The book begins with the formation of the Napoleonic Empire and then transfers over to his reformation and exploitation of France. Each chapter is aligned with their own republic that Napoleon conquered and integrated into the French empire. The book explains the new policies instilled and goes to explain how some lands were resistance to them and the others were very welcome to them. A very interesting read as I wondered how Napoleon could amass such a large army and maintain the expensive

How exactly was one country able to do such a task after having such a bloody and relentless revolution years prior? There are five key methods Napoleon used to take advantage of his satellite countries as stated by Alexander Grab. The list detailing the following methods: “Military conscription, financial impositions, economic concessions to French industry and commerce, land grants to his favorites, and the impositions of the Continental Blockade (Grab 26).” The most hated and vilified policy on the list, was that of military conscription. How exactly does it pertain to his liberal subjugation of Europe? Napoleon at one point had over half a million troops with approximately 50% of them being non-french. Having such a grand army made it that much easier to create and enact military campaigns for new lands and territories for the Grand Empire. Of course, to have troops, one must have a method of paying their salaries. What Napoleon had done was to simply rely heavily on his satellite states’ on their resources since France could not carry the burden alone. Napoleon would not have been able to spread his ideology if he did not have the means of forcefully occupying European states. The book estimates between the years 1804 and 1814, the conquered lands paid half of Napoleon’s military upkeep (Grab 27). Another key aspect of this, is that these satellite states had a very poor tax system and could not keep up with demands. Coincidentally, the French had a tax system, one that was more rational and efficient, thus some governments adopted the more modern tax system. Napoleon also demanded secession of land grants from local states and gave them to favorable military officers and public servants. However this causes a contradiction with the Napoleon code as the new land titles were essentially now in the old manor system which goes against the