. Napoleon’s fetish for power led him to zenith and then to his doom. He made some terrible blunders like – Continental policy, invasion on Russia, attack on Spanish sovereignty and so on. The very economic system he was supposed to boost was badly damaged by wars.
His European Wars hit the already developing France badly. Money was diverted from development to wars.
Continental policy which aimed at negating the naval supremacy of Britain led to economic war between the two worsening the economic situation of France. After being defeated in direct Battle of Trafalgar Square, he tried to impose an economic blockade on Britain through Berlin, Milan etc Declarations by forcing her allies to block British trade. However, this policy boomeranged as Britain was a developed country and underdeveloped countries like France had to benefit a lot from her. His own people couldn’t adhere to the tight blockade that he envisaged under this policy. Russia left Napoleon on this issue.
‘Spanish Ulcer’ also hit his fate hard. Spain was on French side, but Napoleon attacked her sovereignty multiple times. He moved his troops across Spain on his Portuguese expedition without permission of Spain. He also meddled into internal affairs of Spain. His placement of his brother Joseph in Spanish after dethroning of Spanish monarch resented people as attack on their sovereignty. He could have appointed a local instead. Joseph introduced many reforms including land reforms which irked landlords who raised slogans of nationalism against French occupation. The seeds of nationalism that he sowed in foreign countries like Spain as a part of his expeditions were bearing bitter fruits for him. He wasted much of his energy in fighting Spain and an important ally was turned into enemy.
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