Napoleon Bonaparte
LEADER, GENERAL, TYRANT, REFORMER
Napoleon was a brilliant military commander who carefully
planned each campaign, using speed, deception, and surprise to confuse and
demoralize his opponents. By rapid marches, Napoleon would concentrate a
superior force against a segment of the enemy’s strung-out forces. Recognizing
the importance of good morale, he sought to inspire his troops by appealing to
their honor, their vanity, and their love of
In 1796, Napoleon, then a young officer, was given command
of the French army in
LEADER AND GENERAL
March 27, 1796
Soldiers, you are naked, ill fed! The Government owes you
much; it can give you nothing. Your patience, the courage you display in the
midst of these rocks, are admirable; but they procure
you no glory, no fame is reflected upon you. I seek to lead you into the most
fertile plains in the world. Rich provinces, great cities will be in your power.
There you will find honor, glory, and riches. Soldiers of
April 26, 1796
Soldiers:
In a fortnight you have won six victories, taken twenty-one standards, fifty-five pieces of artillery, several strong positions, and conquered the richest part of Piedmont (a region in northern Italy]; you have captured 15,000 prisoners and killed or wounded more than 10,000 men...
You have won battles without cannon, crossed rivers without bridges, made forced marches without shoes, camped without brandy and often without bread. Soldiers of liberty, only republican phalanxes (infantry troops] could have endured what you have endured. Soldiers, you have our thanks! The grateful Patrie [nation] will owe its prosperity to you….
The two armies which but recently attacked you with audacity are fleeing before you in terror; the wicked men who laughed at your misery and rejoiced at the thought of the triumphs of your enemies are confounded and trembling.
But, soldiers, as yet you have done nothing compared with what remains to be done….
Undoubtedly the greatest obstacles have been overcome; but you still have battles to fight, cities to capture, rivers to cross. Is there one among you whose courage is abating?...
No. . . . All of you are consumed with a desire to extend the glory of the French people all of you long humiliate those arrogant kings who dare to contemplate placing us in fetters; all of you desire a glorious peace, one which will indemnify the Patrie for the immense sacrifices it has made; all of you wish to be able to say with pride as you return to your villages, “I was with the victorious army of Italy!”
Friends, I promise you this conquest; but there is one condition you must swear to fulfill-to respect the people whom you liberate, to repress the horrible pillaging committed by scoundrels incited y our enemies. Otherwise you would not be the liberators of the people; you would be their scourge. . . . Plunderers will be shot without mercy; already, several have been….
People of
We are waging war as generous enemies, and we wish only to crush the tyrants who enslave you.
[The following passages from
Napoleon’s diary shed light on his generalship, ambition, and leadership
qualities.]
1800
What a thing is imagination! Here are men who don’t know me, who have never seen me, but who only knew of me, and they are moved by my presence, they would do anything for me! And this same incident arises in all centuries and in all countries! Such is fanaticism! Yes, imagination rules the world. The defect of our modern institutions is that they do not speak to the imagination. By that alone can man be governed; without it he is but a brute.
1800
The impact of an army, like the total of mechanical coefficients, is equal to the mass multiplied by the velocity.
A battle is a dramatic action which has its beginning, its middle, and its conclusion. The result of a battle depends on the instantaneous flash of an idea. When you are about to give battle concentrate all your strength, neglect nothing; a battalion often decides the day.
In warfare every opportunity must be seized; for fortune is a woman: if you miss her to-day, you need not expect to find her to-morrow.
There is nothing in the military profession I cannot do for myself. If there is no one to make gunpowder, I know how to make it; gun carriages, I know how to construct them; if it is founding a cannon, I know that; or if the details of tactics must be taught, I can teach them.
The presence of a general is necessary: he is the head, he is the all in all of an army. It was not the Roman army conquered Gaul, but Cesar; it was not the Carthaginians made the armies of the Republic tremble at the very gates of Rome, but Hannibal; it was not the Macedonian army marched to the Indus [River], but Alexander; . . . it was not the Prussian army that defended Prussia during seven years against the three strongest Powers of Europe, but Frederick the Great.
Concentration of forces, activity, activity with the firm resolve to die gloriously: these are the three great principles of the military art that have always made fortune favorable in all my operations. Death is nothing; but to live defeated and ingloriously, is to dies every day.
I am a soldier, because that is the
special faculty I was born with; that is my life, my habit. I have commanded
wherever I have been. I commanded, when twenty-three years old, at the siege of
It was by becoming Catholic that I pacified the Vendée [region in western
1802
My power proceeds from my reputation, and my reputation from the victories I have won. My power would fall if I were not to support it with more glory and more victories. Conquest has made me what I am; only conquest can maintain me.
1804
My mistress is power; I have done too much to conquer her to let her be snatched away from me. Although it may be said that power came to me of its own accord, yet I know what labour, what sleepless nights, what scheming, it has involved.
1809
Again I repeat that in war morale and opinion are half the
battle. The art of the great captain has always been to make his troops appear
very numerous to the enemy, and the enemy’s very few to his own. So that to-day,
in spite of the long time we have spent in
[In several ways, Napoleon
anticipated the strategies of twentieth-century dictators. He concentrated
power in his own hands, suppressed opposition, and sought to mold public
opinion by controlling the press and education. The following Imperial
Catechism of 1806, which schoolchildren were require to memorize and recite, is
a pointed example of Napoleonic indoctrination.]
TYRANT
Lesson VII. Continuation of the Fourth
Commandment.
Q. What are the duties of Christians with respect to the princes who govern them, and what in particular are our duties towards Napoleon I, our Emperor?
A. Christians owe to the princes who govern them, and we owe in particular to Napoleon I, our Emperor, love, respect, obedience, fidelity, military service and the tributes laid for the preservation and defense of the Empire and of his throne; we also owe to him fervent prayers for his safety and the spiritual and temporal prosperity of the state.
Q. Why are we bound to all these duties towards our Emperor?
A. First of all, because God, who creates empires and distributes them according to His will, in loading our Emperor with gifts, both in peace and in war, has established him as our sovereign and has made him the minister of His power and His image upon the earth. To honor and to serve our Emperor is then to honor and to serve God himself. Secondly, because our Lord Jesus Christ by His doctrine as well as by His example, has Himself taught us what we owe to our sovereign: He was born the subject of Caesar Augustus; He paid the prescribed impost; and just as He ordered to render to God that which belongs to God, so He ordered to render to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar.
Q. Are there not particular reasons which ought to attach us more strongly to Napoleon I, our Emperor?
A. Yes, for it is he whom God has raised up under difficult circumstances to re-establish the public worship of the holy religion of our fathers and to be the protector of it. He has restored and preserved public order by his profound and active wisdom; he defends the state by his powerful arm; he has become the anointed of the Lord through the consecration which he received from the sovereign pontiff, head of the universal church.
Q. What ought to be thought of those who may be lacking in their duty towards our Emperor?
A. According to the apostle
Q. Will the duties which are required of us towards our Emperor be equally binding with respect to his lawful successors in the order established by the constitutions of the Empire?
A. Yes, without doubt; for we read in the holy scriptures, that
God, Lord of heaven and earth, by an order of His supreme will and through His
providence, gives empires not only to one person in particular, but also to his
family.
[In the following letter (April
22, 1805) to Joseph Fouché, minister of police, Napoleon
reveals his intention to regulate public opinion.]
Repress the journals a little; make them produce wholesome
articles, I want you to write to the editors of the . . . newspapers that are
most widely read in order to let them know that the time is not far away when, seeing
that they are no longer of service to me, I shall suppress them along with all
the others. . . . Tell them that the . . . Revolution is over, and that there
is now only one party in
[With varying degrees of
success, Napoleon’s administrators in conquered lands provided positions based
on talent, equalized taxes, and abolished serfdom and the courts of the
nobility. They promoted freedom of religion, fought clerical interference with
secular authority, and promoted secular education. By undermining the power of
European clergy and aristocrats, Napoleon weakened the Old Regime irreparably
in much of
REFORMER
I enclose the Constitution for your Kingdom. It embodies the
conditions on which I renounce all my rights of conquest, and all the claims I
have acquired over your state. You must faithfully observe it. Jam concerned
for the happiness of your subjects, not only as it affects your reputation, and
my own, but also for its influence on the whole European situation. Don’t listen
to those who say that your subjects are so accustomed to slavery that they will
feel no gratitude for the benefits you give them. There is more intelligence in
the