While many people would argue that Napoleon’s greatest
failure was his invasion of Russia, we know that it was in fact his invasion of
Spain. Napoleon felt that the Spanish people would seize the opportunity he
provided them with and revolt against their government. He couldn’t have been
more wrong. Napoleon felt that is was impossible for anyone to want to live in
their own country more than France. Anyway, the Spanish did not join Napoleon’s
forces and the war dragged on for quite some time. Many pieces of art came from
this period, notably the Third of May seen below.
Napoleon was basically the poster
child for Nationalism. He believed that France was the “créme
de la créme”
and could not fathom anyone who didn’t want to be French. His thirst for
national unity and a more land led him to annoy much of Europe. They say that
nothing unites like a common enemy and unfortunately for Napoleon, this proved
to be very, very true. Napoleon fought, but in the end he lost and was exiled
to the island of Elba.
When the allies (Most of Europe) striped Napoleon of his imperial
power, they named Louis XVIII to be the leader. He was considered to be a legitimate
leader, Napoleon was not. This leads us to the two main guiding principles of
the Congress of Vienna. Legitimacy and stability, the former refers to the
balance of power, the latter to a focus on hereditary succession of power. As
you may have noticed, the Congress of Vienna didn’t go all “Treaty of
Versailles” on France. They figured that Napoleon was to blame for the country’s
wrongdoings and just punished him. The Congress felt exiling him would solve
the problems he caused, but they did not anticipate that he would one day
return…
I don't know if Spain was a bigger problem than Russia for Napoleon, but it was definitely an important one.
ReplyDeleteI like the 2nd image with Napoleon and the birds. Make sure you cite it. (Mostly because I'd like to find a copy of it).