The Napoleonic Empire And The New European Political Culture

Napoleon's conquests were spectacular, but behind his wars, is an enduring legacy. A new generation of historians have re-evaluated the Napoleonic era and found that his real achievement was the creation of modern Europe as we know it.

The Napoleonic Empire played a crucial role in reshaping global landscapes and in realigning international power structures on a worldwide scale. When Napoleon died, the map of many areas had completely changed, making room for Russia's ascendency and Britain's rise to world power.

Broers repositions the context in which the Napoleonic empire can be studied, and reconfigures the political and historical geography of Italy, in the century before its Unification in 1859. The Napoleonic Empire in Italy marks a fresh departure in the study of both modern Italy and Napoleonic Europe, based on primary sources.

Two hundred years ago, Napoleon was at the apogee of his power in Europe. This broad ranging reassessment explores the key themes presented by his extraordinary career: from his rise to power and the foundation of the imperial state, to the final defeat of his grand vision following the doomed invasion of Russia. It was a period of almost uninterrupted war in Europe, the consquences of victory or failure repeatedly transforming the political map. But Napoleon’s impact reached much deeper than this, achieving the ultimate destruction of the ancien regime and feudalism in Europe, and leaving a political and juridical legacy that persists today.

In The Napoleonic Empire in Italy, 1796-1814, Michael Broers brings to bear on the Napoleonic Empire many of the conceptual tools deployed in the study of the great extra-European colonial empires. Cultural imperialism and acculturation find close counterparts in many of the policies and attitudes of French administrators in their Italian provinces, explored here from the rich sources of the Parisian and Italian archives, long neglected by scholars. Broers repositions the context in which the Napoleonic Empire can be studied, and reconfigures the political and historical geography of Italy, in the century before its Unification in 1859. The Napoleonic Empire in Italy marks a fresh departure in the study of both modern Italy and Napoleonic Europe, based on primary sources.

After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, the leaders of Europe at the Congress of Vienna aimed to establish a new balance of power. The settlement established in 1815 ushered in the emergence of a genuinely European security culture. In this volume, leading historians offer new insights into the military cooperation, ambassadorial conferences, transnational police networks, and international commissions that helped produce stability. They delve into the lives of diplomats, ministers, police officers and bankers, and many others who were concerned with peace and security on and beyond the European continent. This volume is a crucial contribution to the debates on securitisation and security cultures emerging in response to threats to the international order.

200 years ago, Napoleon was at the height of his power in Europe. This broad-ranging reassessment explores the key themes presented by his extraordinary career.