DMPQ- Napoleonic Empire was Doomed Because of Its Inherent and Self Defeating Contradictions.”

by

. Napoleon’s fetish for power led him to zenith and then to his doom. He made some terrible  blunders like – Continental policy, invasion on Russia, attack on Spanish sovereignty and so on.  The very economic system he was supposed to boost was badly damaged by wars.

His European Wars hit the already developing France badly. Money was diverted from  development to wars.

Continental policy which aimed at negating the naval supremacy of Britain led to economic war  between the two worsening the economic situation of France. After being defeated in direct  Battle of Trafalgar Square, he tried to impose an economic blockade on Britain through Berlin,  Milan etc Declarations by forcing her allies to block British trade. However, this policy  boomeranged as Britain was a developed country and underdeveloped countries like France had  to benefit a lot from her. His own people couldn’t adhere to the tight blockade that he envisaged under this policy. Russia left Napoleon on this issue.

‘Spanish Ulcer’ also hit his fate hard. Spain was on French side, but Napoleon attacked her  sovereignty multiple times. He moved his troops across Spain on his Portuguese expedition  without permission of Spain. He also meddled into internal affairs of Spain. His placement of his  brother Joseph in Spanish after dethroning of Spanish monarch resented people as attack on  their sovereignty. He could have appointed a local instead. Joseph introduced many reforms  including land reforms which irked landlords who raised slogans of nationalism against French  occupation. The seeds of nationalism that he sowed in foreign countries like Spain as a part of  his expeditions were bearing bitter fruits for him. He wasted much of his energy in fighting Spain  and an important ally was turned into enemy.

KPSC Notes brings Prelims and Mains programs for KPSC Prelims and KPSC Mains Exam preparation. Various Programs initiated by KPSC Notes are as follows:- For any doubt, Just leave us a Chat or Fill us a querry––