 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
History 119, European Cultural History 1500-1815 - Summary
Lecture #25 - Napoleon - 38:08 (mp3)
(Save As or file will load and play in the page, load time depends on connection speed)This lecture takes a look at the contributions and consequences of the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte in France and across Europe. Professor Mosse takes care to place Napoleon in the context of two conflicting revolutionary traditions – the moderate tradition of 1791 (the era of constitutional monarchy) and the later, less moderate, Jacobin tradition. Since, as Mosse argues, Napoleon came to the helm of the Revolution in flurry of accusations that Revolution had been betrayed, the later Emperor was forced to reconcile the two aforementioned traditions. Napoleon reorganized the French administration and ended regionalism, created an ordered and efficient police (and especially secret police). Thus, when he entered the European stage he did so as a revolutionary hero, as a liberator of the rest of Europe. Old regimes fell; feudalism ended; the Code Napoleon separated State and Church. Yet, the liberating forces, in staying, became oppressors. The unintended consequence of this oppression became the creation of national sentiments among the people he conquered. Italy was administered as a whole for the first time since the Roman Empire. And at the Battle of the Peoples in Leipzig, all Germans fought side by side against a common identity.
Yet, not only did liberators became oppressors, the revolutionary hero himself underwent a change in title. In 1804, Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor and his brothers became princes. Mosse argues that there were political reasons for this change in role, namely, that it was better to negotiate with the Emperors of Austria and Russia as an Emperor and not merely as an ‘adventurer’. Nonetheless, Mosse goes to length to note that political realism alone did not account for this decision on Napoleon’s part. Rather, Napoleon became a victim of his own delusions evidenced not only by his self-coronation but also by his attempt to invade Russia.
Mosse ends the lecture with a lengthy and politically relevant (notably to Mosse’s own biography) discussion of Napoleon’s role and legacy as a popular dictator. Pointing to Napoleon’s need to capture and hold the public imagination, Mosse explores the dynamics of modern political leadership, notably under dictatorship. He further stresses the new role ideology takes in military struggles. The ideological thrust to the revolutionary wars meant that limited warfare was no longer possible. Instead, unconditional surrender to the revolution became the only outcome possible. While the Congress of Vienna established a balance of power that lasted at least until 1870, the French Revolution set the standard for revolutionary activity until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918.
Mosse Program Home | UW Home | History Department Home | Get Acrobat Reader