Close-ups : 49
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Close-upA close-up on: Tilsit (July 1807)The Grande Armée’s perfect victory over the Russian Army at Friedland had brought the Polish Campaign to an end. After an armistice signed on 20 June, the Czar Alexander I and the Emperor Napoleon I signed a peace treaty on 7 July, 1807, in the…
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Close-upA close-up on: the epoch-making Battle of AusterlitzOn 2 December 1805, north of Vienna in the present-day Czech Republic, the Austro-Russian army was completely destroyed and the Russians were made to retreat to the East. This great victory closed the German campaign.
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Close-upA close-up on: the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, 12 July, 1806After having sketched out his ideas regarding France and German lands in a letter to Talleyrand (Minister of Foreign Affairs) dated October 1805, Napoleon went further in the spring of 1806, creating a confederation of small western German states grouped around the three “principal” allies,…
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Close-upA close-up on: 1803: the purchase of Louisiana by the US from FranceDiscovered by the Spanish in the 16th century, Louisiana was explored a century later by the Frenchman, Robert Cavalier de la Salle (1643-1682). He gave this land to the French king as a present. In 1699, Pierre Le Moyne de Bienville (1680-1768) took possession of…
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Close-upA close-up on: the promulgation of the French Code Civil, 21 March 1804Comprising 36 laws and 2,281 articles, arranged in three parts consecrated to people, goods and property, written in a clear and concise style so as to avoid any ambiguity, the Code civil was “a body of laws designed to direct and fix social, familial and commercial…
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Close-upThe proclamation of Empire, 18 May 1804Contrary to a widely held belief, it was not the coronation (Sacre) of 2 December, 1804, which “created” the Napoleonic Empire but rather a Sénatus-consulte adopted by the Sénat during its meeting of 18 May, 1804. The ensemble of documents presented on Napoleonica® les archives…
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Close-upA close-up on: the coronation of Napoleon I (otherwise known as the “Sacre”)On 2 December, 1804, the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris was the stage on which the coronation of Napoleon I was played out, in the presence of Pope Pius VII. The new emperor broke with tradition by crowning himself and pronouncing an oath guaranteeing the…
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Close-upA close-up on: Napoleon crowned king of Italy, 26 May 1805 in MilanIt was in Milan, on 26 May 1805, that Napoleon was crowned King of Italy.
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Close-upA close-up on: Trafalgar, 21 October, 1805On 21 October, 1805, the allied Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve was ‘annihilated’ by the British fleet under Admiral Nelson.