AP European History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how Napoleon spread reform and also provoked resistance
- Identify why French occupation encouraged nationalist feeling in Spain, the German states, and Poland
- Distinguish between nationalism, liberalism, and conservatism in the Napoleonic era
- Recall key examples including the Peninsular War, Confederation of the Rhine, Fichte, and the Duchy of Warsaw
- Analyse how Napoleonic nationalism shaped the post-1815 settlement
- Apply this material to SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ causation arguments

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand how Napoleonic rule changed Europe politically and ideologically, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that nationalism became a major force during and after the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
- Identify how French occupation in Spain and the German states stimulated anti-French nationalism
- Understand the significance of the **Confederation of the Rhine** in **1806**
- Explain the importance of the **Peninsular War (1808–1814)** and guerrilla warfare
- Recognise the role of **Johann Gottlieb Fichte** and cultural nationalism in the German lands
- Understand why the **Duchy of Warsaw (1807)** encouraged Polish national hopes
- Explain how Napoleonic reforms could be welcomed in some places while French domination still caused resentment
- Understand why the **Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)** tried to contain nationalism and liberalism

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did Napoleon’s empire create nationalism in lands that he conquered?
2. How did resistance to Napoleon differ in Spain, the German states, and Poland?
3. What was the significance of the Confederation of the Rhine for German nationalism?
4. Why is the Peninsular War often treated as a classic example of nationalist resistance?
5. How did the Congress of Vienna respond to the nationalist forces stirred up by Napoleon?

## Introduction

Napoleon did not set out to create a Europe of self-determining nation-states. He wanted a French empire. Yet one of the most important results of his rule was that people across Europe increasingly began to think in national terms. This is a classic AP Euro paradox: Napoleon spread some ideas linked to the French Revolution, but because he imposed them through conquest, occupation, taxation, conscription, and dynastic control, many peoples came to define themselves against France.

This topic matters because it sits at the border between **Unit 5** and later 19th-century developments. It helps explain why nationalism became stronger after **1815**, why conservatives like **Metternich** feared it, and why later movements for German and Italian unification had deeper roots than the revolutions of **1848** alone.

> **Key Term: nationalism**
> The belief that a people sharing a common identity, such as language, culture, history, or political loyalty, should give primary allegiance to the nation and often should govern itself.

### Why Napoleonic rule created nationalism instead of loyalty

A common student mistake is to say that Napoleon simply “spread nationalism.” That is too simple. He spread French power and some revolutionary reforms. Nationalism often followed as an unintended result.

Napoleonic rule had two sides. On one side, French armies often abolished feudal privileges, introduced legal equality for men, weakened old aristocratic distinctions, and spread more centralised administration. In some places, these changes looked modern and attractive. In Venice, for example, French rule ended old restrictions on Jews and encouraged legal change. The **Napoleonic Code** also became a lasting model of legal reform.

> **Key Term: Napoleonic Empire**
> French domination of much of Europe under Napoleon, especially from **1804** to **1815**, through annexed territories, satellite states, client kingdoms, and military occupation.

On the other side, these reforms were not offered freely by local populations. They were imposed by a conqueror. Napoleon placed relatives on foreign thrones, demanded obedience to Paris, used local men as soldiers, and extracted resources for French wars. So even where people liked some reforms, they could still resent French rule.

That is the key causal chain:

- French conquest disrupted old political structures
- French officials centralised administration and reduced local autonomy
- French armies imposed taxation and requisitioning
- conscription drew men into wars that served French interests
- economic burdens increased through the **Continental System**
- local elites, clergy, peasants, and intellectuals all found reasons to resist
- resistance increasingly took national form
  > **Key Term: Continental System**
  > Napoleon’s economic blockade, begun in **1806**, designed to exclude British goods from the European continent.

The Continental System is a strong example of how material pressures fed nationalism. Napoleon wanted to weaken Britain, but the system often damaged the economies of the territories he controlled more than it damaged Britain. Smuggling grew, trade suffered, and resentment deepened. That shows an AP Euro skill point: ideology mattered, but so did concrete pressures like trade loss, taxes, and military occupation.

> **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, do not present nationalism as only an abstract idea. Examiners reward answers that connect ideas to pressures such as occupation, conscription, taxation, and economic disruption.

### Spain: nationalism through mass resistance and guerrilla war

Spain is the clearest case where Napoleonic empire provoked popular nationalist resistance. In **1808**, Napoleon took advantage of disorder in the Spanish monarchy, occupied Spain, and placed his brother **Joseph Bonaparte** on the throne. This was not just a dynastic switch. To many Spaniards, it looked like a foreign seizure of their country.

Resistance was broad because several motives overlapped. Many Spaniards defended the Bourbon monarchy. Many defended **Catholicism** against a foreign ruler seen as tied to the anti-clerical side of the French Revolution. Many also simply rejected occupation by outsiders. So Spanish resistance was nationalist, but not in a purely liberal form. It mixed nation, faith, and tradition.

> **Key Term: Peninsular War**
> The conflict of **1808–1814** in Spain and Portugal against French occupation, marked by strong local resistance and guerrilla warfare.

The Peninsular War became so damaging to Napoleon because the French army was trained for more regular warfare. Spanish patriots instead used ambushes, harassment, and local attacks. These **guerrilla** tactics tied down huge French forces. Napoleon had to leave around **350,000** troops in Spain in a struggle he called his “Spanish ulcer.”

> **Key Term: guerrilla warfare**
> Irregular fighting by small groups using ambushes, raids, and local knowledge rather than conventional battlefield tactics.

Why does this matter for nationalism? Because the struggle itself helped create it. Fighting French soldiers gave people from different Spanish regions a common enemy. War pulled loyalty upward from local and provincial life toward the larger Spanish nation. At the same time, the crisis encouraged political change. The **Constitution of Cádiz (1812)** declared national sovereignty and set up a constitutional monarchy. That shows that anti-French resistance could join nationalism with liberalism.

But students must be careful here. Spanish nationalism was not only liberal. Many resisters wanted religion, monarchy, and local custom defended. So if an exam asks you to distinguish nationalism from liberalism, Spain is a strong example. Nationalism asks who should rule Spain. Liberalism asks how Spain should be governed.

### The German states: French domination created reform, culture, and anti-French unity

The German lands offer a more layered example. Before Napoleon, central Europe was politically fragmented. The **Holy Roman Empire** contained hundreds of states and jurisdictions. Napoleon’s victories changed that dramatically. In **1806**, he dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and created the **Confederation of the Rhine**, a grouping of German states under French influence.

> **Key Term: Confederation of the Rhine**
> A French-dominated organisation of German states created by Napoleon in **1806** after the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

This mattered because Napoleon unintentionally simplified the German political map. That did not unify Germany, but it made later unification easier to imagine. People who had once thought mainly in terms of Bavaria, Saxony, or Prussia increasingly had reason to think in broader German terms.

French control also produced humiliation. After the crushing Prussian defeat at **Jena** in **1806**, many Germans saw how weak their divided world had become. That humiliation pushed reformers in Prussia, especially **Baron von Stein** and **Count von Hardenberg**, to modernise the state. They reduced some Junker privileges, abolished serfdom, widened opportunity in the officer corps, and reorganised the army.

These reforms were not democratic in a modern sense. Stein and Hardenberg wanted a stronger monarchy and stronger Prussia. But their changes helped build patriotic mobilisation. Peasants and middle-class men could increasingly be asked to fight for a state presented as their own, not just for a ruler’s private interest.

German nationalism also developed culturally. Writers and thinkers argued that Germans shared language, tradition, and spirit. The most famous example is **Johann Gottlieb Fichte**, whose _Addresses to the German Nation_ (**1807–1808**) called for moral and national renewal against French domination. Later, the **Grimm brothers** collected folk tales that suggested a common German past across different states.

This is a classic AP theme link to **National and European Identity**. Nationalism was not built only by armies or treaties. It also grew through culture, education, language, and memory.

After Napoleon’s failed invasion of Russia, anti-French feeling became openly military in the **Wars of Liberation** of **1813–1814**. The major turning point was the **Battle of Leipzig (1813)**. German patriots later remembered this as proof that collective struggle could drive out a foreign power.

> **Key Term: Wars of Liberation**
> The anti-Napoleonic campaigns, especially in **1813–1814**, in which many in the German lands fought to expel French power.
>
> **Test Tip:** For a comparison answer, Spain is your strongest example of popular mass resistance. The German lands are your best example of resistance combined with state reform and cultural nationalism.

### Poland and the limits of Napoleonic nationalism

Poland shows that Napoleonic nationalism did not always mean anti-French resistance. In the late 18th century, Poland had been partitioned by **Russia, Prussia, and Austria**. Many Poles therefore saw Napoleon as a possible restorer of the nation.

In **1807**, Napoleon created the **Duchy of Warsaw**. This did not fully restore an independent Poland, and Napoleon’s support had clear limits. He wanted a useful client state, not a fully sovereign nation that might complicate his diplomacy. Even so, the duchy revived hopes for national resurrection.

> **Key Term: Duchy of Warsaw**
> A Polish state created by Napoleon in **1807** that raised hopes for the restoration of Poland after the partitions.

Polish nationalism therefore took an aspirational form. In Spain and much of Germany, nationalism grew against Napoleon. In Poland, it often grew through support for him because he seemed to offer the possibility of nationhood. This distinction is very useful in essays. It proves that Napoleon’s effect on nationalism varied by region.

Still, this support had limits. Poles served Napoleon, but he did not give them lasting independence. After **1815**, the Congress of Vienna again denied full Polish self-determination. That helps explain why Polish nationalism remained a powerful long-term force through the 19th century.

### Why this mattered after 1815

Napoleon’s defeat did not erase the nationalism his empire had stirred. Instead, it frightened conservative rulers. At the **Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)**, leaders such as **Metternich** wanted stability, legitimacy, and balance of power. They did not want to redraw Europe according to national self-determination.

That is why the settlement ignored nationalist demands in places like Poland and Italy and preserved many dynastic arrangements. Conservatives feared nationalism because it challenged multinational empires and old ruling houses. They also feared liberalism, which often travelled with nationalism in the early 19th century.

> **Key Term: self-determination**
> The principle that a people or nation should govern itself rather than be ruled by a foreign power or unrelated dynasty.

This gives you a strong continuity-and-change argument:

- before Napoleon, nationalism existed but was weaker and less central to politics
- during Napoleon’s rule, occupation and reform sharpened national consciousness
- after **1815**, nationalism remained active even though conservatives tried to suppress it
- later 19th-century unification movements in Germany and Italy drew on these earlier experiences

For AP essays, that is the bigger significance. The Napoleonic era did not produce immediate national unification, but it made nationalism a durable political force across Europe.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Napoleon spread reform and French domination at the same time
- Nationalism often grew as a reaction to French occupation rather than as Napoleon’s intended goal
- Conscription, taxation, requisitioning, and economic hardship helped fuel anti-French feeling
- The Continental System damaged many European economies and increased resentment of French rule
- In Spain, Napoleon’s placement of Joseph Bonaparte on the throne in **1808** triggered nationalist resistance
- The Peninsular War became a major example of guerrilla warfare and popular anti-French struggle
- In the German lands, the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in **1806** and the Confederation of the Rhine helped stimulate German nationalism
- Fichte’s _Addresses to the German Nation_ and later cultural work such as the Grimm brothers supported German national identity
- Prussian reforms under Stein and Hardenberg were responses to French domination and helped patriotic mobilisation
- In Poland, the Duchy of Warsaw in **1807** encouraged hopes for national restoration
- Nationalism in the Napoleonic era could be anti-French resistance or support for Napoleon where he seemed to advance nationhood
- The Congress of Vienna tried to contain nationalism because conservatives saw it as a threat to dynastic legitimacy and European stability

## Key Terms and Concepts

- nationalism
- Napoleonic Empire
- Continental System
- Peninsular War
- guerrilla warfare
- Confederation of the Rhine
- Wars of Liberation
- Duchy of Warsaw
- self-determination


Napoleon’s Rise, Dominance, and Defeat - Napoleonic empire provoked nationalism