A new combination of nations now united against the republic, but Bonaparte cut to pieces a great Austrian army, and a second time compelled his enemies to make peace.  He now proposed that the French people elect him “emperor of the French” for life, and by an overwhelming vote they did so.  The empire was very different from the other empires and kingships of Europe, since it was created by the vote of the people.  The other monarchs held their thrones by reason of their descent from the chiefs of the plundering tribes which invaded Europe during the Dark Ages.  By this time, the kings had forgotten that they owed their power to the swords of their fighting men, and there had grown up a doctrine called “The Divine Right of Kings.”  In other words, the kings claimed that God in his wisdom had seen fit to make them rulers over these lands, and that they were responsible to God alone.  In this way they tried to make it appear that any one who attempted to drive a king from his throne was opposed to the will of Heaven.

The victorious French, exulting in their newly-won freedom from the tyranny of kings and nobles, were full of warlike pride in the wonderful victories gained by their armies under the brilliant leadership of Napoleon. (He dropped his last name, Bonaparte, when he was elected emperor.) They swept over the greater part of Europe and helped to spread the idea that the people had rights that all kings were bound to respect, and that it was not necessary to be ruled by descendants of the old robber chiefs.

For sixteen years Napoleon did not meet defeat.  He beat the Austrians and Russians singly; he beat them combined.  In two fierce battles, he crushed the wonderful Prussian army, which had been trained in the military school of Frederick the Great.  He drove out the king of Spain, the king of the Two Sicilies, the kings of several of the small German kingdoms.  He made one of his brothers king of Spain, another king of Holland, a third king of Westphalia (part of western Germany).  He set his brother-in-law on the throne of Naples.  He had his small son crowned king of Rome.  He took away from Prussia all of her territory except Brandenburg, Silesia, Pomerania. and East and West Prussia.  He reorganized the old Polish kingdom and kings called it the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.  He forced Austria to give up all claim to northern Italy.  He annexed to France the land which is now Belgium and Holland, and parts of western Germany and Italy. (See map entitled “Europe in 1810.”)

[Map:  Europe in 1810]

All over Europe, those of the people who had education enough to understand what was going on, were astonished to see the old feudal kings and princes driven from their thrones and their places taken by men sprung from the common people.  The father of the Bonapartes had been a poor lawyer.  Murat, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, king of South Italy, was the son of an innkeeper.  Bernadotte, one of Napoleon’s generals, whom the Swedes chose as their king, was likewise descended from the lower classes.  In nations where the working classes had never dreamed of opposing the rulers there sprang up a new hope.