1. N APOLEON ’ S E MPIRE C OLLAPSES Section 4 Ch.7/23

2. The Continental System ● The Continental System was set up to make Europe more self-sufficient. ● A blockade was set up in Europe to prevent trade and communication with the British. ● Napoleon’s allies ignored the blockade or found ways to get around it, rendering the policy useless.

4. The Peninsular War ● To get the Portuguese to accept the system, he sent an army through Spain. ● Napoleon then removed the Spanish king and placed his own brother on the thrown. ● For the next six years, Spanish peasant fighters, guerillas, struck against the French army. ● This conflict, called the Peninsular War was the first of many nationalistic reactions to French control.

5. The Invasion of Russia Russia was an ally of the French but refused to stop selling grain to the British. Napoleon decided to invade Russia with an army of 420,000 in June 1812, to force them to stop. As he advanced, the Russians practiced a scorched-earth policy in which grain was burned and livestock slaughtered so the French army would get no food.

9. Napoleon’s Costly Mistakes ● Napoleon’s army made it to Moscow, which had been burned rather than surrendered. ● Napoleon stayed until October (1812) and decided to turn back to France. ● Russian raiders attacked the army on its way home. Many men died from their wounds, exhaustion, hunger and cold. ● Only 10,000 made it back alive.

11. Napoleon’s Defeat ● Quick to take advantage of his weakness, Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Sweden joined forces against him. ● Napoleon’s new army was untrained and inexperienced. By April of 1814 Prussian and Russian troops were in Paris. ● Napoleon surrendered and was sent into exile on the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy.

13. Napoleon’s Downfall ● Louis XVIII became king (Louis XVI’s bro) ● He was unpopular because he was suspected of wanting to overturn the revolution. ● Napoleon heard of this and escaped. By March of 1815 he was once again emperor of France. ● Because of Napoleon’s return, the British prepared for battle in the Belgium village of Waterloo.

15. Napoleon’s Downfall ● On June 18, 1815, Napoleon attacked. The Prussian army came to assist the British and Napoleon was defeated in two days. ● This last bid for power was called the Hundred Days. ● Napoleon was shipped to St. Helena, an island in the south Atlantic where he died six years later of a stomach ailment.