The Napoleonic Wars
Discuss how the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars altered the nature of European International relations. How did both contribute to the development of the nation-state?
The French Revolution radically altered the nature of European international relations, gave rise to nationalism and the creation of the nation state, and lead to the formation of large conscript army’s which changed the way war was waged for centuries. The French revolution saw France execute its king, become a republic, and declare war on most of Europe. Charismatic general, Napoleon Bonaparte rose quickly rose to power and declared himself Supreme Leader and Emperor of France. He was extremely popular in France and was largely viewed as a liberator from the various oppressive monarchies that the European people had endured for so many centuries. Even as he was waging his wars across Europe, invading all the surrounding territory, the people living in those areas often felt no connection to the old monarchies and often would welcome Napoleons army with open arms.
Compare this sentiment to the what was felt by the French people. For the first time many deeply and enthusiastically felt that they had created a new and better way of organizing society. This arguably was the beginning of modern patriotism in Europe. If one were to go to a town in outside of France at this time, most of the people would not have self-identified as citizens of that empire, rather more likely they would have considered themselves to be subjects of whatever lord happened to own the land they lived on and collected taxes from them. This is what was special about the French Revolution. It unified France in a way that no other country was able to at the time and created a new class of citizen: one that proudly self-identified as French.
A nation-state has several requirements that must be met that no governmental body in Europe had been able to meet up until the French revolution. Most monarchies or empires had the basic requirements such as non-porous territory, a political system, currency, and international recognition, but lacked identity. Sure, at any given point in time there may have existed temporary shared language or culture in the ever-changing concert of European boarders; however, nothing was ever stable enough, no government system alluring enough to cause the people to proudly self-identify as citizens of that state.
This had some interesting effects on the way that Napoleon was able to fight his wars. Suddenly the population of France could be armed and drafted to serve in the army. Up to this point wars in Europe were almost exclusively fought by small, very well trained, mercenary armies. The creation of the conscription army model gave France a huge edge in terms of sheer numbers when fighting their wars. Another edge that the French had was that their armies were led by better generals than any other state. Because of the French revolution, most of the aristocracy was either overthrown or killed, including many of the high-ranking military positions that had previously been held by seconds sons of rich lords. These positions were replaced by those who could prove themselves to be qualified regardless of what strata of society they came from.
The age of the French Empire, Napoleon, and nearly 23 years of war was brought to an end in 1815 by the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon surrendered to the 7th coalition, abdicated as emperor, and was exiled to the island of Saint Helena until his death. The Napoleonic wars and the ideas of the French revolution set the stage for the next century of European Nationalism and international relations. Metternich, the foreign minister of Austria organized the congress of Vienna which decided what to do with France after it capitulated. The Quadruple alliance was formed by Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria with the firm commitment of going to war with France if it ever got any aspirations for another French Empire.
With the subjugation of France complete, Austria realized that its biggest threat would come from Prussia and Austria. Even though the quadruple alliance technically made them allies, Austria was afraid that they were too powerful with the lack a French security threat and feared that they may invade if given the opportunity. What Metternich did was convince Russia and Prussia that the real enemy was Nationalism and the ideas of the French revolution. So, a new alliance was formed, the Holy alliance, to prevent the rise of any revolutionary ideas anywhere in Europe.
In two decades, the French revolution threw European affairs into turmoil, and inspired passion for a new system of government that never really managed to go away. The passion for the new system also inspired hatred for revolutionary ideas by most of Europe’s monarchies and led to the forceful suppression of any revolutionary behaviors in the years following the Napoleonic wars. Had the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars never happened who knows what might have happened. It’s possible that these nationalist revolutionary sentiments would have appeared elsewhere in a more peaceful way that would not have threatened the security of all other European governments. Without this threat the governments in Europe would not have felt it so necessary to suppress these ideas in the years to come. It’s also possible that without the force of Napoleon and the French empire no country would have the power or influence to firmly cement these ideas into the minds and hearts of the people of Europe.