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Europe and the Superior Being: Napoleon
There is no denying the fact that the French Revolution created Napoleon
Bonaparte (1769-1821). It was this man who, in 1799, combined a passion for
power with his genius for leadership. Although much of what Napoleon
accomplished over fifteen years seemed to undermine the principles of 1789,
the end result was that many of the achievements of the Revolution were made
French realities. Indeed, these realities were also made manifest across
Europe.

Napoleon was born August 15, 1769, on the island of Corsica, the son of a
petty or low noble. He trained at a military school and so the wars of the
French Revolution gave him the opportunity to test his skills. In 1793, when
he was only 24 years old, Napoleon's artillery pushed the British out of
Toulon. In 1795, he saved the Convention from a Royalist insurrection. In
1796, he was given command of the French Army of Italy. It was during his
Italian campaigns against the Austrians that Napoleon's talent for military
strategy was first demonstrated. He tasted glory - he could never do without
it. He knew he was headed for greatness. He was aware, that he was a
"world-historical figure," a "great man," "a hero in history." He later
confided that

In Italy I realized I was a superior being and conceived the ambition of
performing great things, which hitherto had filled my thoughts only as a
fantastic dream.

In November 1797, Napoleon was ordered to plan an invasion of England. Aware
that France had a weak navy compared to that of England, Napoleon decided to
strike the British by attacking British commerce in Egypt and India (which
supplied cotton for British mills). He left France with 35,000 men and took
Cairo. Napoleon's meager fleet, however, was destroyed at the Battle of the
Nile by Nelson's navy. Meanwhile, Napoleon sent glowing reports back to
France.

While all this was going on, things were not that peaceful back in France.
Political unrest, financial disaster, and war with Europe compelled Napoleon
to return. France needed a savior and Napoleon recognized himself as that
savior. In October 1799, and without informing his troops in Egypt, Napoleon
landed in France. A conspiracy was already underway against the lame
five-man Directory. Some politicians realized the need to seize power and
establish a strong executive. Perhaps a tyrant was needed.

In November 1799 - the 18th of Brumaire of the Year VIII - the Directory was
overthrown by a coup d'etat and Napoleon became a military dictator. The
French Revolution had entered yet another stage of its history. The French
people welcomed Napoleon - the bourgeoisie, in particular, expected Napoleon
to protect the wealth and influence they had gained as a result of 1789.
A new constitution was drawn up which specified that three Consuls would
share power as a sort of triumvirate. Napoleon, of course, was one of these
Consuls. His ambition, however, forced him to aspire to much more. In 1802,
Napoleon was made first Consul for life with the right to choose his
successor. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the
French. So, by 1804, the fate of both France and Europe depended upon this
one man. Well, what sort of a man was he?

Like most men of stature and power, Napoleon's was a complex personality. We
naturally think of Alexander, Augustus, Charlemagne, Peter the Great, Hitler
and Stalin. His intellectual ability was clearly impressive. He had
grandiose ideas. He had a philosophic mind. He could work 18 to 20 hours at
a stretch without so much as a break in concentration. He was, as one French
historian put it, "a typical man of the 18th century, a rationalist, a
philosophe who placed his trust in reason, in knowledge and in methodical
effort." But Napoleon was no disembodied brain - his personality was not
pure intellect. He also had a love of action and a boundless ambition. "I
live only for posterity," he said, "death is nothing . . . but to live
defeated and without glory is to die every day." He was an artist, a poet of
action, for whom France, Europe and a mankind were but instruments. He had
charisma, he could move men to obedience, to loyalty and to heroic acts. He
was also quite arrogant - he manipulated people at will. "A man like me," he
once said, "troubles himself little about the lives of a million men."

Living in a revolutionary age, Napoleon observed firsthand the
precariousness of power. He knew what happened to Louis XVI. He knew that
the Girondins had been executed and that Robespierre had fallen victim to
the Reign of Terror. Napoleon assumed that he would not make the same
mistakes. He knew that he must become both a statesman and a tyrant. He had
to consolidate the Revolution and bind together the different social classes
of the French nation.

His domestic policy then, is crucial to our overall understanding of
Napoleonic France. Here, he was clearly influenced by the Revolution. He was
also affected by the ideas of the philosophes. He considered himself
"enlightened." There are five areas of domestic policy worth our attention:
government, religion, law, education and the economy.

Government
Napoleon provided France with a strong centralized government - a government
he would himself dominate, as an emperor, a Caesar. Previous monarchs like
Louis XIV and Louis XVI could not overcome political barriers (the remnants
of feudalism, an obstinate nobility, local traditions and legal problems).
But, when the Revolution basically swept away these remnants, administrative
unity could become a reality. This left an opening for a man like Napoleon.
So Napoleon created an army of officials - civil servants and bureaucrats -
an army which reached into every village, town and city. The entire nation
was linked together under rational administration. The result was that
Napoleon concentrated power and this provided him with taxes and soldiers.
Napoleon also had to shape public opinion - this was accomplished by crude
forms of propaganda, but more importantly by the use of secret agents,
arbitrary arrests, and executions. Like all dictators - we think of
Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin - Napoleon relied on public opinion to prevent
hostile criticism. In other words, dissent was nearly impossible. Printers
and booksellers swore oaths of allegiance and all newspapers fell under
state control. So, by repressing liberty, subverting republicanism and
restoring absolutism, Napoleon reversed some of the liberal gains of the
Revolution. He favored equality before the law and careers open to talent
BUT he believed that political liberty threatened the efficiency of the
state with anarchy. He would govern in the interests of the people as an
enlightened but absolute ruler. He was Plato's philosopher-king made
reality.

Religion
In terms of religion, Napoleon bordered between deism and atheism. I suppose
you could say that Catholicism as a religion of salvation had little meaning
to him. But, like Machiavelli, Rousseau, and Marx, Napoleon believed that
religion was little more than the cement which held society together. Again,
we are reminded of Marx when he remarked that "religion is the opiate of the
people." According to Napoleon, religion promoted national unity and
prevented class war - it kept the people meek and mild instead of strong and
independent. He made every effort to close the divide between the State and
the Church, a divide created by the Revolution. The Temples of Reason (i.e.,
the churches) and the Cult of the Supreme Being, erected in the early 1790s,
were too abstract for Napoleon. How could he expect the French common people
to have understated them? So, his desire was to reconcile Church and State.
Such a reconciliation would gain for Napoleon even greater approval of his
people.

Shrewd, calculating and intelligent, Napoleon knew exactly what he was
doing. It was for these reasons that he negotiated an agreement with the
Pope. The Concordat of 1801 recognized Catholicism as the favored religion
of France - not the state religion. The clergy would be selected and paid by
the State, but consecrated by the Church. So, in terms of religion, Napoleon
basically guaranteed one of the rights mentioned in the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the Citizen - religious freedom. However, the Church did
not regain land confiscated during the Revolution, nor did they have the
right to collect the tithe and the French clergy, though consecrated at
Rome, remained under state control. Napoleon had achieved another of his
aims - Jews, Protestants and Catholics could freely practice their religion.
But the Church was under state control. Although the people seemed to get
what they wanted, so too did Napoleon.

Law
We mentioned that one of the causes of the Revolution was that 18th century
France was plagued with numerous and sometimes conflicting codes of law.
These codes obstructed national unity and administrative efficiency.
Although the National Assembly had made the attempt to rectify the
situation, they always had other things on their mind. Napoleon pressed for
the completion of the project. So, he instituted the Code Napoleon which
incorporated the great principles of 1789: equality before the law, careers
open to talent, freedom of religion, protection of private property,
abolition of serfdom, and the secularization of the state. The Code,
however, also had its less-liberal side. Workers were denied collective
bargaining, trade unions were outlawed, and a system of labor passports was
instituted. Women were declared to be inferior to men by law, and children
had no rights at all. Of women, Napoleon once remarked,

the husband must possess the absolute power and right to say to his wife:
Madame, you shall not go out, you shall not go to the theater, you shall not
visit such and such a person: for the children you bear, they shall be mine.
Education
Like some of the philosophes and the majority of active revolutionaries,
Napoleon favored a state system of public education. The curriculum would be
secular and schools would be managed under the direction of the state and
not the Church. For Napoleon, education would serve a dual role. State
funded education would provide him with capable officials necessary to
administer his laws and trained officers to man his army. The young would
also be indoctrinated to obedience and authority. Napoleon established the
University of France - a giant board of education that placed education
under state control. To this day, little has changed - education is strictly
centralized with curriculum and academic standards set for the entire
nation. Women, of course, were excluded. "Marriage is their whole
destination," Napoleon once wrote. Women did not need education, all they
needed was religion.

Economics
Napoleon's economic policies were designed to strengthen France and increase
his popularity. To stimulate the economy and serve the interests of the
bourgeoisie, Napoleon aided industry through tariffs and loans. He built or
repaired roads, bridges and canals. He established the Bank of France. He
kept careers open to men of talent and provided bread at low prices. He
stimulated the employment of artisans and did not restore ancient feudal
rights.

Napoleon was not a democrat - nor was he a republican. He was, he liked to
think, an enlightened despot, sort of the man Voltaire might have found
appealing. He preserved numerous social gains of the Revolution while
suppressing political liberty. He admired efficiency and strength and hated
feudalism, religious intolerance, and civil inequality. Enlightened
despotism meant political stability. He knew his Roman history well - after
500 years of republicanism, Rome became an empire under Augustus Caesar.

Napoleon's domestic policies gained the popular support he demanded. But it
was his military victories that mesmerized the French people. Napoleon
realized the grand dream of Louis XIV - the mastery of Europe. Between 1805
and 1807, Napoleon defeated Austria, Prussia and Russia becoming the virtual
ruler of the Continent. He embraced his own "art of war" that stressed rapid
offensive attack over defensive positions (similar to the German
Blitzkrieg). Surprise and speed were essential ingredients. So too were
efforts to confuse his opponents: he supplied newspapers with incorrect
information, he launched secondary offenses and he sent dense screens of
cavalry ahead of his marching columns. He wanted to both surprise and
demoralize the enemy. His troops were amazing. They marched fifty miles in
36 hours during one campaign in Italy in 1796. They accomplished 275 miles
in 23 days during the Austrian campaign in 1805.

While he made every effort to humiliate and demoralize his enemy, Napoleon
also understood the necessity of maintaining the morale of his own troops.
So, he shared the dangers of war with his own men. He did not wait on a
hill - rather, he led the charge. An army based on honor, vanity and
personal loyalty is difficult to overcome. Alexander, Augustus Caesar and
Charlemagne were all aware of this. By 1810, Napoleon dominated nearly all
of Europe. Belgium, vast territories of Germany, Holland, Italy, Westphalia
and Spain had all been annexed. Napoleon's "Grand Empire" also included
Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.
While Napoleon and his armies were busy securing their military domination
of Europe, Napoleon also set about to extend his reforms within France to
other lands. His officials instituted the Code Napoleon, organized a corps
of civil servants, opened careers to talent, and equalized taxes. Serfdom
was abolished as were manorial dues and the courts of nobility. Freedom of
religion was permitted, guilds were abolished, uniform systems of weights
and measures were established, roads and canals were built, and secular
education was promoted.

Why did Napoleon bother? Well, his desire was efficient administration and
the support of the conquered peoples (like the ancient Romans, Napoleon gave
the people offers they could not refuse). In fact, most people of the
conquered nations considered Napoleon to be their "great liberator." But
there is another side to the story. Those lands which Napoleon conquered
became satellite states which were exploited for the benefit, not of the
Grand Empire, but for France. So, Napoleon had a difficult task on his
hands - how to control such a vast territory of land? However, the real
threat came not from the Continent, but from England, France's perpetual
enemy. Between 1803 and 1805, Napoleon tried to invade the English but it
was not to be. Instead, he instituted the Continental System which barred
all countries under French control to trade with England. However, thanks to
smuggling, piracy, and trade with the New World, England was able to thwart
Napoleon's plan. Meanwhile, Napoleon had problems with Spain; Germany fought
her own wars of liberation; and Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812 came to
be the beginning of the end.

The Napoleonic wars came to an end in March 1814. Napoleon was removed as
Emperor to the island of Elba and a Bourbon monarch returned to the French
throne. Napoleon made one last ditch effort in 1815 - his last 100 days, and
then he was exiled to St. Helena, a small island hundreds of miles off the
west coast of Africa. Napoleon died in 1821.

Napoleon was a real man as well as a legend. It was Napoleon himself who
helped to create this legend. He wrote his memoirs while exiled on St.
Helena between 1815 and 1821. He tells us his aim was to defend the
Revolution and consolidate its gains. He emerges as a champion of equality,
a supporter of popular sovereignty, a destroyer of privilege and a lover of
peace. According to Napoleon, his vision was to create a United States of
Europe. He wanted to free Europe from tyranny, oppression and despotism. As
we know full well, this never happened. However, he did help to consolidate
many gains of the Revolution. But, such a view ignores the downside of
Napoleon - his repression of liberty, the general subversion of
republicanism, and the oppression of conquered peoples.

Historians would agree on two things about Napoleon. First, he was an
extraordinary man, a self-made man. His drive, will, military genius and
charisma made him a great man, a world historical figure, a man who made
history. Machiavelli would have found Napoleon to be his perfect prince.
Second, by spreading revolutionary ideals and institutions, Napoleon made it
impossible for the restoration of the ancient regime. After Napoleon there
was no turning back: feudalism was dead, society was secularized, the modern
nation state replaced the dynastic state, and the bourgeoisie became the new
class of privilege and status.