In 1789, the social fabric of Europe was thrown into chaos and disorder by the commencement of
the French Revolution, during which the people of France rose up against their king and oppressive
nobility, demanding their voices be heard. Within three years, the monarchies of Europe
were at war with Revolutionary France in what would become the War of the First Coalition.
It was during this war that the French Monarchy would be abolished, and in its
place would rise a new republic, idealizing liberty and fraternal equality. However,
as the French Revolutionary Wars raged on, a promising young French artillery officer would
see his career skyrocket through the ranks of the revolutionary army and government until this man,
Napoleon Bonaparte, would one day seize the reins of the Revolution and subvert it for
his own self-interests. Welcome to our video on how Napoleon subverted the French Revolution.
We’re going to dive into all the details of Napoleon’s story,
but we also bring you a broader run through the whole tale from today’s sponsor MagellenTV,
who feature Napoleon in an episode of their series The Great Commanders.
It’s an expert retelling of Napoleon’s story, laced with analysis of what it was that made him
stand out as a commander, and what brought him so much success. From his rise amid the french
revolution, to his military conquest of europe, to his downfall and ultimate knock-out at Waterloo,
Napoleon remains studied and sometimes idolized to this day as a man who climbed the rungs of
power through talent. But perhaps those rungs were also to shatter under his own weight,
as his ambition turned his talent into tyranny. Get the full story now over on MagellanTV.
Of course there are also hundreds of other documentaries to watch there,
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[Napoleon’s Revolutionary Pamphlet and Early Rise] The Corsican-born French Army officer Napoleon
Bonaparte, who initially signed his name in the Italian fashion of Napoleone di Buonaparte until
1796, was 24 years old when his name first gained the notice of his contemporaries.
The young artillery officer’s first small step in climbing up the social ladder of
Revolutionary France was not achieved through fighting on the battlefield with sword in hand,
but rather by writing with the pen in the office. In 1793, Napoleon wrote a
political pamphlet supporting the French Revolution titled Le Souper de Beaucaire.
This pamphlet, which marked his first rise into public relevance, was a narrative dialogue between
two travellers in an inn. In this story, two merchants from Marseille attempt to convince
their fellow inn guests, a soldier, an artisan from Montpellier, and a citizen of Nimois, of how
their city is justified in revolting against the Revolutionary government in Paris. After a
heated back-and-forth argument, the soldier ends the debate by proclaiming that the citizens of
Marseille have no justification. whatever their grievances, in throwing their home country into
a state of civil strife and chaos in the midst of a war against foreign invaders. The soldier states
that any refusal to obey the Jacobin government in Paris in such a trying moment is both treasonous
and counterrevolutionary. Through this political pamphlet, Napoleon expressed his open support for
the Revolution and directed his opposition toward the pro-Monarchist regions of Southern France.
Napoleon’s Le Souper de Beaucaire was by no means a historical, groundbreaking work,
but it did suit the dire circumstances surrounding Revolutionary France at the moment it was written,
for he had authored the piece while passing the time in General Jean Baptiste de Carteaux’s army,
which was operating against pro-Bourbon counterrevolutionaries in Southern France.
His pamphlet soon gained the attention of a close Bonaparte family friend,
Antoine Christophe Saliceti, a fellow Corsican who held
influence as a political commissar in the Revolutionary government.
Saliceti introduced the pamphlet and its author to his friend, Augustin Robespierre,
brother of the famous Maximillian Robespierre. Augustin appreciated Napoleon’s Jacobin tone
and pro-Revolutionary message and grew to like the magnetic personality of Napoleon, and before long,
he was approving of all of the young Corsican’s recommendations and ideas, even those policies
which clashed with his military superiors. So began Napoleon’s rise to prominence, from a
lowly and obscure artillery officer to a name with some note and merit in the Revolutionary ranks.
Through his connections to Saliceti and Robespierre, Napoleon earned an appointment
to the staff of General Carteaux in the Siege of Toulon in late 1793,
where he first earned his reputation as a battlefield commander by leading the French
Republicans to victory over the British and pro-Royalist forces that December. He
was hailed a hero for his role in this victory and was quickly promoted to Brigadier General.
However, Napoleon’s connections to Robespierre were soon cut short,
quite literally, when the latter lost his head to the guillotine in 1794 at the end
of the Reign of Terror. As a colleague of Robespierre and having previously been sent
on a secret diplomatic mission to Genoa, an enemy of Revolutionary France, Napoleon
was made a suspect in the Terror and thrown in jail by none other than his old friend Saliceti,
who was trying to save his own head in the aftermath of the coup against Robespierre.
Any illusions Napoleon might have had about the ideals of liberty and common brotherhood in the
French Republic were now being cast in doubt, with the Brigadier now realizing the extent of the
corruption and intrigue within the Revolutionary government. Nevertheless, Napoleon continued
to firmly believe that the Revolution was a cause for good within France. Bonaparte was released
from prison by his erstwhile friend, Saliceti, and put to work in the Army of the West, suppressing
counterrevolutionary Royalist revolts in the Vendée region. For some time, Napoleon actually
considered transferring his military services to the Ottoman Empire, having become incredibly
disillusioned with the poor management and chaotic administration of the Revolutionary armies.
[The 13 Vendémiaire] By October of 1795,
Napoleon was in Paris working with the Bureau of Topography in the Committee of Public Safety
when a Royalist revolt broke out against the ruling National Convention in the streets of
Paris. Bonaparte continued to show his loyal convictions to the Revolution’s cause when he
was tasked by Convention leader Paul Barras with taking charge of Republican forces in
Paris and suppressing the riots. In one of the most notorious acts of his early career,
Bonaparte ordered his artillerymen to fire grapeshot from their cannons into the gathered
angry mob, violently suppressing the riot in an event that became known as the 13 Vendémiaire.
Toulon had built Napoleon’s early military reputation,
while the 13 Vendémiaire had solidified his political career. Barras and the other grateful
leaders of the Convention, who now formed a new government known as the Directory,
hailed Bonaparte as a saviour of the Revolution, and before long,
he was promoted to the rank of General of Division with command over the exhausted,
ill-equipped, and underperforming Army of Italy. Napoleon’s military career only grew with his
string of victories in Northern Italy during 1796 - 97, where he galvanized the demoralized
French soldiers under his command and earned a reputation as a fearsome general; his troops
even fondly nicknamed him “The Little Corporal” for sharing in their dangers on the battlefield.
With his decisive victory in the Italian Campaign, Napoleon single-handedly forced
the Austrians to sign a treaty which ended the War of the First Coalition, bringing about a fragile
peace in Europe after five years of conflict. The people of France revered the victorious
general as a hero and saviour. It was here that Napoleon’s path to despotism truly began,
as he started to realize that he had won the war, not Robespierre, not the Convention, and
certainly not the current Directory. He famously remarked privately, “I am only at the beginning
of the course I must run. I can no longer obey. I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.”
The peace in Europe did not last, and within a year, Napoleon was planning his next campaign
against the British in the War of the Second Coalition. He set his sights upon the vast deserts
of Egypt, where he saw an opportunity to cut off the British Empire’s trade connections to her
colony in India. But more than that, Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt was to be a scientific and
cultural expedition, bringing with him France’s best historians and scientists to study the land
of the pharaohs and bring back riches and glory to the French people. The campaign
would ultimately end in military failure for the French, but politically, Napoleon’s expedition
had done what he had sought to do - it served to increase his fame and popularity back home.
[The Coup of 18 Brumaire] When Bonaparte returned to
France in 1799, he received a hero’s welcome. Napoleon reached new heights of fame and glory
while the Directory reached a crisis point. Corruption and greed plagued the Directory,
and its legitimacy was cast in doubt, and Napoleon began seeking a way to seize power for
himself - to take the reins of the Revolution personally. Paris was already seething with
political intrigue and backroom deals. He saw that the time had come to make his power play
against the Revolutionary government. He made a political alliance with a plotter in the
Directory, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, who sought the popular general’s support to take power.
On November 9th, 1799, Napoleon’s plot was set in motion. The plan was to
force the dissolution of the Directory’s legislature, vote in a new parliament,
draft a new constitution, and effectively renew the government with a clean slate,
with Bonaparte and Sieyès legitimately voted into power by the parliament. Sieyès,
through his connections and briberies, would ensure that the other leaders of the
Directory would be unable to oppose the motion. Napoleon gained the support of the other senior
military generals for his plot, winning them over through briberies or his charm.
Napoleon and his plotters believed that force would not be required to get such a resolution
through, and they didn’t want to be seen as taking power through a military coup. Napoleon relied
on the support of his brother, Lucien, who had been elected President of the lower house of the
legislature, the Council of Five Hundred. He hoped that Lucien would be able to sway the legislators
to dissolve the government, but the Council refused to listen. Deliberations continued inside
the chamber as Napoleon and his co-conspirators waited outside with growing impatience. Finally,
the young Corsican’s patience grew thin, and he entered the building accompanied
by a retinue of grenadiers to deliver a fiery speech to each chamber in turn.
Although the Council of Ancients relented, the Five Hundred refused to hear him out;
the deputies rose from their seats shouting, “Hors la loi” or “Outside the Law,” with some members
even drawing daggers on Napoleon. Bonaparte and his grenadiers were driven out of the chamber,
and he noticed some of his generals were visibly hesitating on their next move.
Had the Council declared Napoleon an outlaw, things might have gone differently. But their
indecision would prove fatal to their power and the French Revolution as a whole. Drums beat
outside as soldiers charged into the chamber accompanied by Napoleon. The deputies began
to disperse quickly, many rushing to escape the frenzied scene through the room-level windows.
In a quick and decisive coup, Napoleon had effectively dissolved the Directory.
[Aftermath of the Coup] With the fall of the Directory, a Consulate
was voted into power, in which three “co-consuls” would lead the French Republic: Napoleon, Sieyès,
and a co-conspirator, Roger Ducos, later to be replaced by Charles-François Lebrun. But for all
intents and purposes, Napoleon had consolidated power for himself as the “First Consul” of the
French Republic. Much like the waning years of the Roman Republic, the true revolutionary ideals
of liberty and fraternity faded away under the consulate - or rather dictatorship - of
Napoleon. He had seen how the various governments and legislatures of Revolutionary France had
thrown the country into chaos and disarray, and Bonaparte intended to put an end to it
by gaining absolute power. Working vigorously from his office in 17-hour workdays, Napoleon
oversaw the rapid transformation of France from a republic into a one-man dictatorship.
There were some positives out of Napoleon’s consulship. He did away
with the hectic Revolutionary calendar, created a new legal codex known as the
Napoleonic code - the basis for much of modern Europe’s legal codes - and
also established general order and stability in France. But for all intents and purposes,
the French Revolution, or at least the ideals it had birthed, died on November 9th, 1799.
Most Frenchmen didn’t oppose the new consulship, as Napoleon brought stability to a France that
had seen nothing but chaos and death for over ten years. Napoleon went on to win another string of
victories over the Coalition forces in his Second Italian Campaign, culminating with the Battle
of Marengo in 1800, which solidified Napoleon’s status as First Consul of France and ensured the
new government’s continued stability. Now holding uncontested absolute power over the French people,
Napoleon would finally cement his rule over the country in 1804 by holding an election which made
him Emperor of the French. Once an idealistic revolutionary like many of his French brethren,
Napoleon Bonaparte had subverted the ideals of the French Revolution for his own gains
and became the very thing he had originally fought to oppose - an absolute monarch. We
hope you enjoyed our video on Napoleon’s rise from artillery officer to Emperor.
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