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Why did France betray Napoleon?

Asked by Anonymous Oct 03, 2026 11 views 1 answers
Learn more about Why did France betray Napoleon and what may explain the situation.


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Answered Oct 06, 2026
The idea that France betrayed Napoleon is more of a Bonapartist perspective than a straightforward historical fact, but there were several reasons why French support for Napoleon collapsed in 1814 and 1815. After more than a decade of continuous warfare, France was exhausted. By 1813-1814, Napoleon's Grande Armee had been destroyed in Russia in 1812 losing over 400,000 men, and in Germany at Leipzig in 1813, and France itself was invaded by the Sixth Coalition of Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria for the first time in 20 years. The French people, particularly the bourgeoisie, peasants, and war-weary mothers who had lost sons to conscription, wanted peace and an end to the endless levies of men and taxes. The political elite, including former revolutionaries like Talleyrand and Fouche who had served Napoleon, turned against him because they saw that his refusal to accept a compromise peace would lead to France being partitioned and their own positions destroyed. The Senate declared him deposed in April 1814, and his own marshals including Ney and Lefebvre told him his army would not fight for Paris. In 1815 during the Hundred Days, many French liberals and royalists refused to support him again because they feared another European invasion. So it was less a betrayal and more war-weariness, political self-preservation by elites, and recognition that his ambition had led France to disaster and needed to end for France to survive.
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