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HIST 213 L5 The Age of Napoleon 1 of 2 — Transcript

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0:05Hello everybody. This is Dr. Pearson.
0:06I've had some trouble getting this
0:08recorded for y'all. I've tried various
0:10methods. Hopefully this works. This is
0:12the last of our um lectures we have for
0:15you to take notes on. I'll try to post
0:17the PDFs for you. I think for the most
0:20part, those of you that stuck with it
0:21and been taking care of the readings and
0:23the docu um the discussions and things
0:26like that have done a really good job. I
0:28think most of you again that have stayed
0:29engaged are doing a great job with um
0:34improving
0:35uh evidence-based direct engagement
0:38quoting things not just kind of
0:40paraphrasing engaging as historians
0:42would with the materials and I
0:45appreciate that. So we've got like
0:47basically a little over a week left. Um
0:49I'll have this posted hopefully here
0:51within the hour. Um so today we come to
0:54Napoleon, right?
0:58Um,
1:00one thing to remember about the terror
1:02is that it only makes sense if you see
1:03it as part of a larger movement, as I
1:06say here on the slide, um, to emergency
1:09politics. And throughout the western
1:11world in the last 300 years, anytime a
1:14government moves to emergency power, um,
1:17it sets aside all the rules, right? You
1:20have constitutional kind of order, which
1:23um, streamlines things along the lines
1:24of rules. And then you have emergency
1:27power which allows anything pretty much
1:29to go so long as um the pursuit of order
1:33trying to reassure people that things
1:34are going to be okay.
1:37Remember the tennis court oath began
1:39u with the claim of the right of the
1:41mass of people to create a constitution.
1:44It was powerful. It was hopeful. It was
1:45something everybody could believe in. Um
1:48but at the same time France faces war,
1:51insurrection at home in the streets of
1:53Paris and specifically in the west u
1:56economic crisis like they're still
1:58broke. Whole reason this thing started
2:01and who represents the nation making
2:03everything when you upend the total
2:05order right more and more dangerous and
2:07bloody.
2:09Um revolutionary leaders believed right
2:12the nation could only be saved by
2:14destroying its enemies. that gets that's
2:16a dangerous road to go down. Um, this
2:19idea of course is going to turn the
2:20revolution from its ideals of liberty
2:23and equality into a kind of politics
2:26enforced by fear of suspicion, coercion,
2:29and eventually death.
2:31Right after the terror, many French
2:33people were exhausted by the
2:35instability. And so, they're going to
2:36look for something strong. Where does
2:37that come from? From the army. So,
2:40order, stability, and authority.
2:42We can see the revolution moving through
2:44a clear arc. Financial crises have
2:47exposed the weakness of the old regime.
2:49The estates general became a debate over
2:51sovereignty. Who has ultimate power?
2:53Right. Then becoming the national
2:55assembly of the tennis court of
2:56launching a constitutional revolution.
2:58Something to ground France on the rule
3:00of law.
3:02Popular pressure and radicalism. Right.
3:04And war radicalize the revolution to a
3:06killing field. The terror is going to
3:08institutionalize that of violence and
3:10the failure again of the dcast directory
3:13will give way to an autocrab
3:17Napoleon
3:19make sense. I hope so.
3:25Okay. Napoleon on
3:28he is uh as it says there on the slide
3:32presented either as a guy who saved the
3:35revolution or betrayed it. Right.
3:38Um,
3:40both of these interpretations are true
3:42and both are false. Excuse me. My water
3:45here.
3:49Um,
3:51so he ends the revolution's most
3:54unstable phase. And remember, this is
3:56what most bgeoa or any kind of people
3:57really, but especially middle class
3:59people want is order, stability. They
4:02don't want to feel like things are
4:03always crazy.
4:05um he preserves many of the revolution
4:08social and legal reforms. In fact, he
4:09himself says he's loyal to it. He's not
4:11looking to bring back the monarchy. Um
4:14he'll make peace with the church, and
4:15I'll show you that here in a second. But
4:16he's not looking to bring back that old
4:18late medieval world. Um he spread these
4:22reforms across Europe. However, he also
4:26eliminated representative government.
4:27It's it's him, right? Censored political
4:30life. if he's not interested in
4:32necessarily reasoning critiques. He
4:34restored slavery in the French colonies,
4:36right? Napoleon's going to send ships
4:39the son do what eventually became Haiti
4:41and created a new hereditary aristocracy
4:44replacing the old Bourban regime with a
4:46Bonapart one. Um and through his
4:50brilliance, his will, sometimes his
4:53luck, sometimes all of it, he'll um
4:57create a massive French empire. So the
5:00central question we're looking at today
5:01is not whether Napoleon simply betrayed
5:04the revolution or not. That's that's not
5:05helpful. It's which parts of the
5:07revolution he preserved, which parts he
5:09suppressed, and how empire his empire
5:12transformed. France, Europe, and the
5:14Atlantic world, right? So that's that
5:16big world, right? If you're looking at
5:18the land mass um encircling the Atlantic
5:22Ocean, Napoleon matters a lot. By 1815,
5:26right, and Napoleon had been defeated,
5:27but Europe couldn't go back to the way
5:29it was. Um, the old monarchies maybe
5:32survived, but the political and social
5:34assumptions upon which they were based
5:36could not and would not and did not.
5:40Okay,
5:41the directory.
5:44Now, remember the French re where all
5:46these names get weird. Why is it year
5:48three? They start history over, right,
5:50with um the destruction of the monarchy.
5:53So the constitution of year three
5:55creates the directory in 1795, right? So
5:58year three back from 1792. Um those that
6:02authored it wanted to avoid both
6:04royalism. They didn't want the hard
6:06right, right? Nor the jackaban left that
6:09had authored the terror.
6:14In this model, legislative authority
6:16would be divided between two chambers,
6:18right? and executive power will be
6:20divided among five directors. Thus the
6:23name the director. The new regime was
6:25deliberately designed to prevent right
6:28any one faction from dominating France
6:30or French politics or French power. In
6:32practice, yeah, think about it. It
6:34suffered from internal weakness. Right?
6:37Why? Because the directory depends on a
6:40narrow electorate of property owners.
6:42It's associated I don't think I put this
6:44on the slide. Sorry we go. um with
6:46economic hardship, political
6:48instability, social inequality. Now,
6:50think about the pressures here. On the
6:52right, the royalists want to reverse the
6:54revolution, restore the monarchy, one of
6:56the king's brothers on the throne.
6:59Radical Republicans, on the other hand,
7:00believe the revolution had not gone far
7:02enough.
7:04Rather than accepting defeat, right, the
7:06government repeatedly use force to
7:07remove its enemies. When you do that,
7:09you rob yourself of legitimacy,
7:11especially when you don't prove yourself
7:12capable.
7:14the people might tolerate a benevolent
7:16dictator so long as you know prices are
7:19low and you prove yourself competent now
7:22more important than any of that the
7:24directory became increasingly dependent
7:26on the army over and over and over they
7:27got to call the army military victories
7:29brought money into France people like
7:31money enhanced the prestige of
7:33successful generals one above all right
7:36and protected the government from its
7:38domestic enemies it used the army to
7:40quell descent
7:42but this dependence creates a danger
7:44which I hope by now you can all see a
7:46regime that relies completely on its
7:48generals can be overthrown by woman.
7:51That happens over and over. Napoleon's
7:53not the first, he's not even the last.
7:56Uh look at Rome.
7:59Julius Caesar brought order then he
8:01became dictator and on we go. Right? So
8:04in France however that general was
8:06Napoleon Bonapart. Now Bonapart was born
8:09in Corsica in 1769.
8:14um the island had just became French. It
8:16was no longer retired. His family
8:18belonged to the minor nobility, kind of
8:21those people that had bought their way
8:22in late or wanted um through um prestige
8:25from a local monarch. Not especially
8:27important, but he specialized in
8:29artillery training
8:32and the technical aspects of what would
8:34become modern war.
8:36Um his entry in the minor nobility at
8:39least his grandfathers allowed him to
8:41enter the French military schools and
8:42again he was a technical genius.
8:44Napoleon understood all details. He was
8:47precise. He left nothing to chance. Um
8:52the new schools of artillery of course
8:53rewarded education, diligence in that
8:55way, mathematical skill and precision
8:57precision of thinking and thought. Um,
9:00and he's, I'm comfortable saying, one of
9:02the great military minds the world's
9:04known.
9:07During his career, um, the revolution
9:10helped him advance quickly. Under the
9:12old regime, the highest commands are
9:13usually reserved to men of high
9:15aristocratic birth, regardless of merit.
9:17That, of course, creates problems for
9:18the French military. Revolutionary
9:20warfare, on the other hand,
9:23um, privileges, skill, and ability.
9:26Just because you're noble, if you're
9:27stupid and you lose, the revolution is
9:30going to make the conditions possible
9:31for you to either leave France or get
9:33replaced, right? That's certainly what
9:35happened. Now, Napoleon first gained
9:37national attention at Tulong, which is
9:40is it on our map's a little blurry. I'm
9:42sorry, y'all. Um that's in 1793. Why?
9:45Well, his um artillery helps Republican
9:47forces there recover the city from
9:49royalists and their British allies.
9:51Right. The Brits are kind of undermine
9:53the French because they hate them. In
9:551795, he also helped suppress a royalist
9:57uprising in Paris. Then he received
10:00command of the army of Italy. Now the
10:04Italian um campaigns, those are 1796
10:09to 97, right? These transform both him
10:13um and the French army into France's
10:15most celebrated general. Why? He defeats
10:18the Austrians. He defeats the Italians.
10:20He uh reorganizes conquered territory.
10:23He seizes well for France he issues
10:26proclamations presenting himself as a
10:27liberator as a great man right so he's
10:30already learning right by 1796
10:35and 95
10:36um to present himself you're going to
10:38combine military victory you need the
10:40victory political propaganda right and
10:42um administrative reorganization all
10:45that salted with ambition
10:50his ambition is almost limitless
10:53By 1798,
10:55Napoleon had led expeditions to Egypt.
10:57Now, the campaign there uh was intended
11:00to threaten British connections with um
11:02India and establish French influence on
11:04the Eastern Mediterranean. The idea is
11:06trade, money, empires thrive on trade
11:08and power. Um the expedition would
11:11combine enlightenment scholarship and
11:13military conquest. So, what does
11:15Napoleon bring with him? scientists,
11:17artists, engineers, scholars, all to
11:20kind of study the Egyptian knowledge.
11:22Um, he wants to expand the European
11:25knowledge of Egypt and to deepen and
11:27decipher hieroglyphs.
11:29It literally goes to the pyramids,
11:31right? The campaign was also um violent
11:35and arrogant. French forces encountered
11:38intense local resistance in Egypt and
11:39they didn't care. Uh, Napoleon presents
11:42France as a friend of Islam and an enemy
11:43of tyranny. But um under his rule, the
11:48Egyptians are going to experience
11:49invasion, taxation, occupation and
11:52repression. All those things empires do.
11:54Um the French destruction of the f the
11:56British destruction of the French fleet
11:58and that is the battle of the Nile left
12:01the army isolated and Napoleon
12:04eventually landed his forces and
12:05returned to France where the director
12:07was facing another challenge. The thing
12:09is the French people aren't going to
12:10hear about that defeat at the Nile until
12:12later. They're hearing about all the
12:14success Napoleon's having.
12:20So on November 9th and 10th, 1799,
12:26um that's the 18th and 19th premier in
12:29the new French calendar. Um
12:32Napoleon will participate in a coup
12:34against the directory. Now what do the
12:36conspirators want? They were saying the
12:39republic has moved um they don't want to
12:41go back to disorder and extremism. They
12:43want to save the republic from the left
12:45and the right. Now in this instance um
12:47those seizing power are always going to
12:49blame the left ironically rising from
12:52the right. Um the legislature was moved
12:55outside of Paris at the time. Uh
12:57soldiers would surround all the deputies
13:00and the existing constitution was of
13:02course suspended.
13:05um
13:07it did not proceed as smoothly. In fact,
13:10it almost didn't work. Now, Napoleon
13:12will make sure to edit this later in
13:15propaganda, but um Paul will face
13:19resistance
13:21um and turned out speaking rather poorly
13:24and hotly among the uh arrog um among
13:27the deputies gathered there.
13:30Right. Uh let me see. Sorry, my camera
13:33is being strange. That's fine.
13:40His brother Lucian Bonapart, right,
13:42serving as president of the Council of
13:44500, that's the legislature, right,
13:46helped turn the situation around and
13:48eventually grease the wheels for in
13:50Napoleon's favor. troops would
13:52eventually clear the chamber and a
13:54provisional government was established
13:57with the um France remaining officially
13:59republic but all meaningful power
14:01transferred to the hands of the first
14:03console ruby three the other two won't
14:05matter the first console is Napoleon
14:08Bonapart now the kubra is often treated
14:11as the end of the French revolution and
14:12that's kind of a debate you can have
14:15it's useful as a if we're defining the
14:18revolution as a period of open political
14:20experimentation and competition. But
14:23many of these revolutionary changes
14:24would continue after 1799. So what
14:27Bromeire does is end the revolutionary
14:29republic, but it does not end the effort
14:32to transform French society.
14:36Now
14:39Napoleon is going to offer French um the
14:42French people a bargain. He would
14:44preserve many of the revolution's
14:46concrete achievements, right? So those
14:49things that the French had achieved the
14:51monarchy a more legitimate kind of law.
14:54Um he's also going to end this order for
14:56peasants and property owners. He's going
14:58to guarantee the sale of the church and
14:59immigrate lands. So if you left France,
15:01you get to keep those lands. Those petty
15:04bajgeois, the small middle class. If you
15:06bought church land and lands from
15:07nobles, you get to keep them. There
15:09would be no restoration of feudal dues,
15:11no restoration of aristocratic estates,
15:14no restoration of any kind of old
15:16medieval um obligations to the church
15:21for the wealthy and the educated, right?
15:23Napoleon promised careers based partly
15:25on talent and service. Now, there would
15:28still be some bribes, but mostly he's
15:30trying to find an an educated bure
15:32bureaucracy that's effective.
15:38For conservatives and Catholics, he
15:40restored public worship. He also offered
15:42protection for church property and for
15:45the rights of the mass, things like
15:46that. For former revolutionaries, he
15:49offered protection from royalist um
15:51revenge.
15:52for returning immigrants right. He
15:54provided opportunities for
15:55reconciliation if they accepted the new
15:57order. And what do they have to accept?
16:01Absolute power to the first console. So
16:04his government is resting therefore on
16:06reconciliation,
16:08property, the rights of property,
16:10administrative competence. Remember, you
16:13don't get to stay in charge if you're
16:14stupid and bad and people are broke. Um
16:18he's going to give the military glory,
16:19victory. Napoleon usually wins.
16:23and political obedience. That's the
16:24price. You will you will obey Napoleon.
16:28Um and most people thought that was a
16:31price worth it after over a decade of
16:33instability.
16:34They're willing to take a shot.
16:37So what do we see? The terror right is
16:40the excesses of the left. Right? Before
16:42that we'd seen the excesses of the
16:44right. The royalist regime. Both are
16:45incompetent. They erode in the middle
16:47because they can't hold sway because of
16:49competence. I'm kind of a comic book fan
16:52as you see. Um, so whenever you see the
16:55Riddler there in any class I'm teaching,
16:57that means we're going to ask questions
16:58or summarize. If you have questions,
17:00write them down. Good thing about a
17:03videos, right? You can stop me talking
17:04and make sure you have what you need and
17:06send them to me. So, if you're confused
17:07at all, let me know.
17:11We will continue. Let me move this on
17:14here. Does everybody understand how
17:15Napoleon comes to power? using the
17:17platform of the military, competence of
17:19success, outrunning his embarrassments
17:22and making sure he gets credit for all
17:23the wins.
17:28So what does Napoleon do? Um he
17:30strengthens um the state. So power from
17:33the periphery comes to the state and
17:35specifically to him. In 1800, he's going
17:38to introduce a pre prefect system where
17:41each department or state, so it's kind
17:42of like these departments, they're
17:44almost like states in France, will be
17:46supervised by a prefect appointed by the
17:48central government, right? What do
17:50prefects do? They implement national
17:53policy. They collect information. Yes,
17:55they're spying on you. They monitor
17:57local opinions. It's again, spying on
17:59you. Supervise officials and maintain
18:01order. They also make sure laws are
18:02obeyed, which people like. They're kind
18:05of good with this. Um local elections
18:08while continuing become pretty much
18:10meaningless. Mayors and other officials
18:13were appointed. They're not elected. Um
18:16the state reached far more deeply and
18:18more consistent consistently into
18:20provincial life. Um the Burban monarchy
18:23had ever managed to do right. The king
18:26ruled absolutely in theory, but mostly
18:28he just stayed in Paris. So if you were
18:30a peasant, you're more or less left
18:31alone as long as you worked your land.
18:33Not anymore. the revolution cares what
18:36you think now's moved ahead right rules
18:38of law property and all that
18:42but there is quite a lot uh quite a
18:44large loss of autonomy this system I
18:47think became one of Napoleon's most
18:48durable and lasting and important
18:50legacies right a revolutionary France
18:52had abolished the old patchwork of
18:54provinces and privileges
18:56um Napoleon now turned to departments
19:00these new departments are going to be
19:01led by appointed administrators
19:03reporting to
19:06Now,
19:07was this all about ladies and gentlemen
19:12of summer 2, 2026?
19:15Financial reform. Remember, the
19:17revolution had been haunted by a money
19:19crisis. The French government was broke.
19:21That is why Louie called the estates
19:24general in the first place and his
19:25inability to manage that effectively is
19:27why he lost his head. Right? The French
19:30have been haunted by fiscal crisis,
19:32inflation,
19:34um unstable political or paper currency.
19:37All that undermines the political
19:38legitimacy of the regime. So what is
19:41Napoleon going to do? You don't get to
19:43stay emperor. You don't get to stay
19:44anything if you're not competent.
19:47He's going to be competent. He wants to
19:49restore confidence in the system. So um
19:52Napoleon establishes the Bank of France
19:58in 1800. Um tax collection will become
20:01more efficient. Government accounting
20:03will improve which depending on your
20:05perspective is good or bad but at least
20:07the government's books are better and um
20:09national currency of the franc was
20:11established right and stabilized sorry
20:14the money it's going to be worth
20:16something now. It's not all over the
20:17place in terms of inflation or
20:19deflation.
20:21Napoleon's regime was also better able
20:23to mobilize French wealth than the old
20:26monarchy had ever been able to do. Now,
20:28this is a huge change, right? The
20:30Bourbons had helped cause the revolution
20:32because they couldn't reform national
20:34finances without provoking resistance
20:36from all those privileged institutions.
20:38The church and the aristocrats and many
20:40of the rich um middle class didn't want
20:43to have to give up all their exceptions.
20:46Napoleon governed a society in which
20:47many of those institutions had been
20:49abolished, placed under the boot of the
20:51state.
20:53So in practice, his state was more
20:55centralized, more uniform, and far more
20:57capable of taxation and conscription
21:01than any of his predecessors had been.
21:03And think about it, who's he backed by?
21:05The army, firmly behind their general.
21:09So you're not really going to be able to
21:11say too much there.
21:15Napoleon also establishes state
21:17controlled secondary schools which are
21:19called Lysier or Lys if you're from
21:22Kentucky. Now their purpose is not
21:25really to universalize democratic
21:27education. That'll come kind of later.
21:31No, they're designed to primarily train
21:32military officers, civil servants,
21:34professionals, and loyal administrators.
21:36a well-trained, very loyal bureaucratic
21:39cadger.
21:42Right? This system emphasized
21:44discipline, hierarchy, mathematics,
21:47classical learning, especially languages
21:48in Greek and philosophy. So, grammar,
21:51rhetoric, logic, uh, logic, rhetoric,
21:53and of course, service to the state
21:55because that's how you got your job.
22:00Scholarships did allow some talented
22:02people of modest origin, so you could be
22:04kind of broke. And if you caught the eye
22:06of the right people, get a shot. Um, but
22:09access was highly any.
22:12Now the police had a famous principle,
22:15right? Careers open to talent contained
22:17a kind of I think a really legitimate
22:19revolutionary element to it. Um, birth
22:21certainly mattered less than it had in
22:23these regime. But what still matters?
22:28Money. Money.
22:31um education, personal connections and
22:33loyalty to the regime matters a lot. So
22:37this Napoleonic meritocracy was not
22:40really equal. I mean I think it was a a
22:43broadening though of access
22:45um but it was a system in which selected
22:48men could rise by serving in the state.
22:50So
22:51create new elites.
22:58There's the famous Concord of 1801. Now
23:00remember, France is known even now as
23:03the oldest daughter of the church, the
23:05first western state after the fall of
23:07Rome to accept Christianity, right?
23:11Historically a staunchly Catholic
23:13country. um the pope and the ro the
23:17Catholic even the Protestant churches
23:19weren't excited about the kind of
23:21rampant atheism and anti-urch um um not
23:25only policies but you know repression
23:29um of the terror and other kinds of
23:30things many many religious died right
23:33faithful a Catholics and then you
23:36famously there's the Carmelite nuns that
23:38went singing to the guillotine
23:40um so what Napoleon is going to do in
23:43180 1
23:45is um try to resolve that. So relations
23:48between revolutionary France and the
23:49Roman Catholic Church had been deeply
23:51divisive. Um the revolutionary
23:54government had seized church lands. The
23:56civil constitution of the clergy had
23:58peeled off um clerical loyalty to Rome
24:01and to the church and to Jesus more
24:03broadly, right? And placed it on the
24:05state. Um
24:08at its height of sort of left-wing maybe
24:11radicalism,
24:12the French state had even pursued a
24:14policy of dchristianization
24:16recristening Notream right as a temple
24:18of reason.
24:20The revolutionary calendar had alienated
24:22pretty much the entire countryside. It
24:24was weird and crazy and people didn't
24:25really like it. Um so what does Napoleon
24:28do? He negotiates directly with pest I
24:32bishop of Rome, the pope, right in 1801.
24:34Um, Catholicism is recognized as the
24:38religion of the vast majority of French
24:40citizens, but it was not restored to its
24:43its place as exclusive state religion.
24:45There would be religious toleration,
24:47which is a nice nod to the Protestants,
24:50especially among the middle class,
24:52right? Most your Catholics are fairly
24:54poor or the really rich. Public worship
24:56would resume. Churches could resume
24:58their bishop. bishops were reorganized
25:00and the clergy would now be paid by the
25:03state which of course if you're kind of
25:04like less burden on the people. Um the
25:08pope in his turn accepted the loss of
25:10the church lands. This is crucial right
25:13because it reassured new land owners
25:15competence their property would be
25:16supported
25:18um that the church would not come to
25:20threaten their property right. Um I
25:23think this really demonstrates
25:24Napoleon's uh political method. He's not
25:27going to restore pre-revolutionary
25:29privilege to the church. He's just not
25:31going to do it. Instead, he's going to
25:33incorporate religion and religious
25:35toleration into the new centralized
25:36order he's building. Catholicism would
25:39help produce that social order. The
25:41church would remain subordinate to the
25:44state. And actually, this is kind of a
25:46consequence, right? Not so you got the
25:48reformation, the Napoleonic wars, right?
25:51Before that, the 30 years war,
25:54world wars.
25:56Even now the most supreme authority in
25:58anybody's life, mine, yours, everybody,
26:00but the place beyond which you cannot
26:02appeal is not the church regardless of
26:04which church you may belong to or don't.
26:07The supreme authority in your life is
26:08political. That's
26:11kind of a consequence of this, right?
26:14You cannot seek sanctuary on church
26:17property in a monastery anymore. You
26:19couldn't go to your pastor as a
26:21legitimate um ulk or bull work against
26:24which the state must respect. If there's
26:26a criminal in like a local Baptist
26:27church here in Knox County, the sheriff
26:29can and will go into that church, seize
26:33that person. That would be a gross
26:35violation in the medieval world.
26:37Wouldn't happen. You could seek
26:38sanctuary. Not anymore. The state right
26:41now is supreme.
26:43Right? So that's the Napoleon. But what
26:45does the concord showed us? He's not
26:47going to restore the pre-revolutionary
26:49order, right? But he is going to offer
26:51more broad toleration um for disaffected
26:54groups so long as they are subordinate
26:56to the state.
27:00So what else does he do? Napoleon
27:03sharply restricts freedom of expression.
27:07Pretty much all autocrats do this.
27:09Newspapers are closed or placed under um
27:11government supervision. Publishers and
27:13book sellers are monitored. The police
27:15collected information and political
27:17opinions, what people were saying,
27:20writing, thinking, whatever. Former
27:22jackammens, royalists, Jesuits
27:25especially, they're going to be
27:26suppressed eventually. Um, staunch lo um
27:28church people, all anything not loyal to
27:31the state is going to be a problem.
27:33Public debate is going to be replaced by
27:35a managed political culture.
27:38So there's going to be official art,
27:39official newspapers, official
27:41ceremonies, official bulletins, medals,
27:43monuments, paintings, all glorifying
27:47first console.
27:49Now, Napoleonic propaganda would blend
27:52several different traditions invoking
27:54right the height of the Roman Empire,
27:56the French kind of deep strength of
27:59Charlemagne, and the kind of the
28:02trappings of the French monarchy.
28:04They'll also be balanced with
28:05enlightenment rationality, revolutionary
28:08citizenship, at least in theory, and
28:10military heroism, which everyone can
28:12understand in theory, available to
28:14everybody. So the result then is a
28:17modern military dictatorship using both
28:19coercion, persuasion, and mass
28:22communication.
28:24Make sense?
28:28So I just want y'all to see right how
28:31Napoleon's doing this. He's offering
28:34success and stability, right, in
28:36exchange for obedience.
28:39He's kind of getting aside from the old
28:40petty disputes between right and left.
28:42Everybody's now under the heel of of
28:44Bonapart while making the system more or
28:47less work and delivering victories for
28:49the French because Bonapart was
28:52brilliant and the French had one of the
28:53largest, most effective, most modern
28:55armies um in the world.
29:07Um, a few other things you should know
29:11about Napoleon before we set off for a
29:12war is um these twin themes of legal
29:17unity and sort of the limits of
29:18equality. Honestly, one of Napoleon's
29:21most enduring achievements is the civil
29:23code of 1804.
29:25Most textbooks just call it the
29:27Napoleonic Code.
29:29It's up there the Justinian codeex right
29:32from the Byzantine era which codified
29:34Roman law. Um it's it's yeah it's really
29:38really important. Um now before the
29:41revolution France as I've told y'all and
29:43you've read hopefully u had multiple
29:45legal traditions all stacked sometimes
29:47in confusion is contradictory and
29:49paradoxical ways. Laws varied by
29:52province they varied by status. They
29:54vary by. So if you're rich or poor, by
29:56corporation, by custom, by tradition,
29:59are you talking monastic? Are you
30:01talking urban? Are you talking rural?
30:03Are you talking lord, king, mayor,
30:06whatever. Um,
30:09it was confusing and terrible. Didn't
30:10really work. Um, the revolution had
30:13proclaimed, right, in theory, legal
30:15equality, but it had not completed a
30:17unified civil code. This is what the
30:19Napoleonic Code does. It establishes a
30:21more uniform legal framework. Doing
30:23what? Protecting private property,
30:26affirming the end of feudal privilege,
30:28supporting freedom of contract, and
30:30treating at least male citizens as
30:32formally equal under the law. All these
30:34principles reflect the social revolution
30:37that began in 1789.
30:39Noble birth would no longer
30:41automatically place someone in a
30:42separate legal category.
30:45offices and rights were no longer
30:46supposed to depend on hereditary
30:48privileges, although
30:50money would matter. But hey, there you
30:53go. So, what are the limits of this? Um,
30:56you see a conservative social vision
30:58kind of leaking through. On the one
30:59hand, it is it's it's a massive
31:01improvement and elements of it will be
31:03carried all over the world as the basis
31:05fundamental order of, you know, all
31:08legal systems really. They're kind of a
31:10mashup of the American idea and the the
31:14polionic kind of balance, property, no
31:17privilege, equality before the law,
31:20justice should be blind. So,
31:24in most history classes,
31:27um, if you're looking for, um, where are
31:30the exceptions? There's like the old
31:31triad, right? Race, class, gender. So
31:35people of color, right, carved out there
31:38in Napoleon, despite all this rhetoric
31:40of supporting the free rights of man, if
31:43you're a brown or black person, not
31:46necessarily included. This is absolutely
31:49hypocritical to the revolution's idea of
31:51equality for all. Um think the French
31:54will launch Napoleon's two or three
31:57attempts to reconquer Sandang Haiti.
32:00They won't succeed.
32:02um
32:04um class workers face many restrictions,
32:07right? Labor organizations are
32:08prohibited. The legal system is going to
32:10employ uh favor employers and those that
32:12hold contracts, those that are not bound
32:14by them. So, it's going to combine civil
32:17equality among at least white men,
32:19right, within hierarchy of households
32:22and workplaces. And we've got something
32:25to make here in a second. Um and of
32:27course there's women. Uh women's legal
32:30independence was deeply restricted.
32:32Married women were placed under the
32:34authority of husbands. Fathers exercised
32:36extensive if not complete control over
32:38their children. Divorce did remain legal
32:42which was something new but it became
32:45very difficult to obtain.
32:47Um
32:49so the revolution is going to destroy
32:51legal privileges based on the estate but
32:53it did not produce universal equality.
32:56Okay. Napoleon also will stabilize the
32:59social society of legal um legally equal
33:03males property owning men while
33:06reinforcing race, class, colonial and
33:09imperial hierarchy
33:12limits, right? Limits.
33:17Couple more things and I want to
33:19probably pause here and I'll just post a
33:21part two. Um,
33:24Napoleon's authority became
33:25progressively more personal and more
33:27hereditary, right? He's not necessarily
33:30looking to hand this thing off to
33:31somebody he doesn't know or trust, and
33:33even ugly men want their kids to look
33:34like them. Um, in 1802, he becomes first
33:38console for life. In 1804, he declared
33:41himself emperor of the French.
33:46um a broad national consensus to find
33:51however you might want to think about it
33:53more or less approve this um emperor of
33:57the French right
34:00implied rule over a people rather than
34:02ownership of a territory it's a new
34:05empire increasingly resembles a
34:07hereditary monarchy so what does
34:09Napoleon create a court with titles
34:12ceremonies and a new nobility nobility
34:14of his loyal followers.
34:17So the revolution had abolished right
34:19hereditary aristocratic privilege.
34:21Napoleon established a new elite based
34:23on money, state service and loyalty to
34:26him and military distinction. Titles
34:29returned but feudal rights did not. So
34:32the new order is not exactly like the
34:33old one.
34:38Um,
34:40Napoleon's coronation took place, I
34:43believe that's in December 1804 with the
34:46Pope present.
34:51Paintings fairly important here. You can
34:53kind of see on the slide there's the
34:55Pope sitting down. All the cardinals are
34:57there.
34:59Um, that's Jacqu Louie Deveid or
35:02David's. It's a huge painting, right?
35:04which is on purpose. This is the
35:07emperor. It shows uh Napoleon crowning
35:11his wife Josephine.
35:13And what are we seeing here? There's
35:15imperial authority
35:17um presented as majestic, religiously
35:20sanctioned, orderly, and um politically
35:25unified. Napoleon will famously crown
35:27himself
35:29which lets you know from where he
35:31believes his power derives himself.
35:34So the Napoleonic Empire right is going
35:37to combine multiple sources of
35:38legitimacy which any successful one's
35:40going to have to do. Roman imperial
35:43imagery, the empire, Catholic ceremony,
35:48French monarchical grandeur, right?
35:50Revolutionary nationalism,
35:52popular ratification and support based
35:55on what? Military victory.
36:01So he's not going backward to kingship.
36:03What he's doing is constructing a new
36:05form of post-revolutionary monarchy
36:08based on his own cult of personality and
36:10wins. all filtered through a revised
36:13legal system um theoretically where uh
36:16rewarding merit.
36:23So
36:25why keep fighting? The French had been
36:27at war with various European powers
36:30pretty much constantly since 1792.
36:34Um Napoleon will inherit many of these
36:36conflicts to fact service in those wars
36:38that propelled him to power. Um, but for
36:42his part, he's going to expand them.
36:44European monarchs feared French power
36:47and revolutionary influence. These ideas
36:50undermined their own rule based, as it
36:53was, on late medieval understandings of
36:55monarchy, princes, kings. The
36:59revolution's whole language is hostile
37:00to that. Also, the French are one of the
37:03biggest and when they're working right,
37:05richest, most powerful mon armies in the
37:10world.
37:12It's huge, right?
37:16The English will oppose French control
37:19of the low countries. That's up there by
37:21Denmark, right? North Sea and the
37:24European coast. Austria, Prussia, and
37:26Russia will compete with the French and
37:28one another over territory and influence
37:30in Central and Eastern Europe. Um, but
37:34what did I tell you? Napoleon needs
37:37victories and wars for political
37:38legitimacy. Why? Victories bring
37:41prestige. They bring money. They bring
37:43territory, bargaining power with your
37:45defeated enemies. Defeated states will
37:48pay
37:50um stipens and indignities which will
37:53then support French armies. Conquest
37:55will allow Napoleon to place relatives
37:57and allies on European thrones and he
37:59will do this. So war is not an accident.
38:03It's one of its foundations.
38:06Now
38:08the other side of this is Napoleon
38:10practices a new kind of war.
38:13The revolutionary wars and the Napole
38:15ones that follow them right differ in
38:18first of all scale from most 18th
38:21century conflicts. when you talk about
38:23the levy on mass in se that's the um
38:26draft in 1793
38:28this had established a principle the
38:30nation can mobilize its citizens for war
38:32now it said for protection but
38:36protection moves to conquest pretty
38:37easily um Napoleon will inherit a large
38:40conscript army organized into flexible
38:42cores each core can move independently
38:44for a time and unite with the others for
38:46major battles
38:48forces usually moved rapidly
38:50concentrating them against isolated
38:52enemies seeking a decisive engagement.
38:55Um, what does success require?
38:58Organization, logistics, experienced
39:00officers loyal to the vision, high
39:03morale, and the human resources made
39:05available by a revolutionary state,
39:07centralized and bureaucratic. Right?
39:10This is not industrial war yet. Armies
39:13have to depend on horses and roads and
39:15local food supplies and seasonal
39:16conditions. You can't campaign in the
39:18winter, too cold or the rainy seasons.
39:21However, warfare now would mobilize
39:23whole populations, whole economies, and
39:26national identities will be grafted onto
39:28it on an unprecedented scale. It's wins
39:31for the French, right? Nobody's better
39:34at it, at least initially, than Napoleon
39:36Bonapart.
39:44Okay, a couple examples.
39:48I'll summarize this and try to buffer
39:50this particular video. We'll put up
39:52number two in a second. Where are we at?
39:54Uh 40 minutes here. In 1905, Napoleon
39:58defeated the combined forces of Russia
40:00and Austria at Alistster and one of the
40:02great victories um the last 300 years.
40:07Um this battle would destroy the third
40:09coalition. Your book talks a little
40:10about them and confirms the French
40:11dominance of central Europe. Well, he
40:13just wins. In 1806, the Holy Roman
40:16Empire itself was dissolved after a
40:18thousand years more or less of existing
40:20in some kind of form. Um,
40:24he'll reorganize many German states into
40:26what he calls the confederation of the
40:27rhyme. Uh, later victories over Prussia
40:31and Russia will extend this influence.
40:33And then I think there's the treaties of
40:35Tisla in 1807 which will mark the height
40:37of Europe Napoleon's mastery of Europe.
40:42Um by 1807 he pretty much dominates the
40:45French or the European continent right
40:48his empire will include territories
40:49directly annexed to France satellite
40:51kingdoms ruled by Napoleon's allies or
40:53relatives or lackis and defeated states
40:56forced into cooperation so it's not a
40:58single outside of French borders uniform
41:01structure different regions experience
41:03different combinations of reform
41:04exploitation military occupation and
41:07collaboration but they all are going to
41:09be under the boot of Napoleon and his
41:10armies
41:13Um French armies will also carry
41:15important revolutionary reforms with
41:17them wherever they go. In many regions
41:20they um the new French rulers abolish or
41:24weaken feudal dues. They illuminate
41:25corporate privileges. They reorganize
41:28the church um introduce legal equality
41:31and adopt versions in Napoleonic code.
41:35Um, if you're Jewish in parts of Western
41:37or Central Europe, French rule brought
41:39civil emancipation, removal of the
41:41medieval, not suspicion, anti-mitism. So
41:44there, but at least it regularized
41:45things under the law. If you're part of
41:47the middle classes, standard law and
41:50careers in government would create new
41:51opportunities for you. This explains why
41:54some Europeans initially welcomed um the
41:57French armies because French conquest um
42:01appeared to offer right liberation from
42:02aristocratic privilege, clerical power,
42:05fragmented administration, so
42:06incompetent and feudal obligations.
42:10But that's only one side of the coin.
42:12The other side of it, right, is um these
42:14reforms come with military occupation,
42:16censorship, taxation, economic demands.
42:19Empires exist to make the mother country
42:22rich. In this case, the metropole, the
42:24um Paris, French. They they want an
42:27empire to make themselves rich. So, you
42:30get occupation censorship, taxation,
42:33economic demands,
42:36um conscription of population into wars,
42:38right? And of course, political
42:40subordination.
42:41The French are liberating
42:46people while denying themselves rule.
42:49Right?
42:51It'll be this contradiction between
42:52liberation and empire that event and he
42:54overextends himself which will
42:56ultimately undermine Napoleonic rule.
42:59All right. So that's 45 minutes there.
43:03If you have any questions, let me know.
43:06I'm going to buffer this and um record
43:11the second part of this.

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