The French in North Africa 26/07/2007 07:30:00

French Revolution
• did away with the monarchy
• killed the king and most of the aristocracy
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)
• started as a second lieutenant
• rose through the ranks very rapidly until he took control of the gov’t
in a coup in 1799
• very nationalistic, despised the monarchy, although he became
emperor
• he believed the idea of meritocracy. Rising through the ranks on
your own merits
• First Consul of the Republic
• Emperor of the French
• uniform code of law for all the places under his command
o striking and inventive for its time
• he believed in the declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
o the code insured freedom, trial by jury, legal framework for
commerce, contract law.
o revolutionized European legal history
• centralized gov’t
o local prefects that reported on the local issues to the gov’t
• eliminated tax exemption
• centralized system of schools, universities, and military schools
• creates a national bank
• believes his reach would go farther than just France
• Napoleon dreams of rebuilding the roman empire with a new
foundation
• Empire Builder
o at 29 years old Napoleon leads an expedition into Egypt
(1798)
  land bridge between Europe and Asia
 fertile lands around De Nile
 by taking over Egypt he could rival the Ottoman Empire
o defeats the Mamluks
 about 40,000 soldiers
 he brought the soldiers and a small army of scholars
 167 savants (scholars, engineers, architects)
o Insitut de ‘Egypte
 established a center in Cairo for them to work
 tasked them with some questions
 is Egypt a good place to build windmills?, etc
 biggest part was documenting Egypt
o Description de l’Egypte
 A few years later they come out with a book with
pictures and texts showing Egypt and everything they
could
o Liberator
 he thought he was coming to Egypt to liberate them
 did not go as planned for him
 had success in the battle of the pyramids
o Resistance
 he left his army behind in Egypt
 they have no way back get back to Europe after
he takes the ships
o Battle of Trafalgar
 Most important naval battle for the French
 not a single British ship was sunk while the French were
completely destroyed
o Height of Napoleonic Empire 1811 – 1812
 empire starts to crumble
  tried to attack the Russians
 Prussian, British and others organize and crush
napoleon in 1814
• Nationalism
o Peninsular War
o Guerrillas
 from the French war Guerre
 local resistors in Spain and Portugal that allied with the
British to defeat the French
o encouraged popular nationalism
o he laid the foundation for nationalist strike
o the foundation of the modern foundation state
Comparing Napoleon to other Empires of this time
• Similarities
o Sanctioned by god, but not religious
o roman precedent
o tries to conquer previous roman empires
• Differences
o unlike the British, he’s not mainly focused on the trade
o emphasis on the knowledge
o centered around one man
o focused on Europe
French Colonies during the 19th century
• tropical dependencies
• settlement colonies
o European occupation
o white dominions
 neo-Britons (Canada and such)
  whites made most of the pop.
 native pop. has been killed or died from disease
 they move toward self gov’t; toward parliamentary rule
 the French learned from the united states and have
more freedom for Canada
o contested settler colonies
 Algeria, Kenya, Hawaii, new Zealand
 kind of a conglomerate of the two: tropical and
settlement colonies
 temperate climates, low disease and attracted European
settlers
 there were still large indigenous populations and both
groups live together and clash over property
• Algeria
o Part of the ottoman empire since the 16th century
o local rulers were very important
o the deys (term to local leaders)
o French conquest during 1827 and 1830
 naval blockade
 bombarding from the waters
 and finally seize the cities
o Charles X (Bourbon) overthrown by Louis-Philippe
 Charles X had decided to capture Algeria as a
distraction for the people of the current problems at
home
o Louis-Philippe does not pull back the troops in Algeria and
says that ruling north Africa was essential
o Annexation (1834)
 Algeria is annexed and followed by larger amount of
French troops
o After some debate they decide that they need to colonize it,
not just hold it militarily
o the French employ brutal tactics
o then a large amount of settlers move to Algeria
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