Related Photos

With this article the World Conflicts Documents Project inaugurates a new section dedicated to the history of the nineteenth century. we hope that the addition is appreciated by all lovers of that historical period.

"Napoleon" by Antonino Spoto

2nd part of the article

The Youth

Second child of the Corsican lawyer Charles Maria Buonaparte (Napoleon will change the last name in Bonaparte during the country of Italy) and of Letitia Ramolino, he originated from the small local nobility that had followed Pasquale Paoli in his struggle for the autonomy of the island. He attended the military college of Brienne, in the Champagne, for then to pass to the military school in Paris, where he got the degree of artillery second lieutenant (1785).

He shared the ideal of liberty and equality of the French Revolution, at the beginning of which he reentered Corsica covering the position of lieutenant colonel of the Corsican National Guard. When in 1793 Corsica declared its own independence, Napoleon, considered French patriot and republican, have to flee in France. A little afterwards, by now fully convinced of the impossibility of the realization of the Corsica's liberation project, he had the first occasion to climb the ranks of the French army since the population of the south of France had risen up against the Convention and the rebels, supported from English and from the monarchists had taken possession of Lyon and Marseilles. Some day after also Toulon opened the doors to the English fleet and Paris decided to send general Carteaux to free the city. But the operation didn't have good results because of the scarce qualities of the high officers and really in that days, Napoleon, who already belonged to the garrison in Nice, had from his friend and fellow citizen Saliceti the command of the artillery in Toulon. His project to free the city was clear since the beginning and the new general Dugommier, substitute of Carteaux, didn't oppose himself to the young Corsican officer. In short time Napoleon conquered the fortress of Eguillette and from there with the artillery he knew how to open the road to the French soldiers, that the day after, entered victorious in Toulon.

Thanks to the extraordinariness of the enterprise, Napoleon, at only 24 years old, was promoted general of brigade. After the victory gained in Toulon, Napoleon had serious political problems that brought him to the incarceration in 1794 because of a probable project against the Revolution organized with the brother of the tyrant Robespierre. Napoleon was canceled by the board of the generals and, gone out of the jail, he lived a period of crisis until 1795. But it was once more the revolution to offer him “the great occasion” since, taking advantage of the death of Robespierre, the Parisian monarchists had installed themselves in the Convention ready again to upset it and this brought in 1795 to the burst of the revolt. General Barras having understood the special military qualities of Napoleon, didn't hesitate to choose him to set down the revolt. Bonaparte immediately ordered to shoot against the Parisians in front of the church of S. Rocco showing to his soldiers that in him “the voice of the ambition was stronger than that of the conscience.” The Convention was safe and the monarchists had suffered a hard hit, but the greatest beneficiary of such victory was surely the young general of brigade who gained the nomination of general of division and, ten days after, that of head of the Inside Army.

The first country of Italy

In the same year he married Josephine Beauharnais, a widow of an aristocrat guillotined during the Revolution. She had been forced to deliver the sword of his dead husband because of the order of disarmament of the Parisian population emanated by the Directory but the young Napoleon, with a gallant gesture, gave it back to her. From here the love was born between them who departed for the usual wedding trip. But the honeymoon lasted few days because Napoleon got the nomination to commander of the Army of Italy with the order immediately to reach his place of command. Arrived to destination, Napoleon found a certain air of distrust from the other general as, particularly, Augereau who had promised that “with him he would have used the strong manners.” But the young Bonaparte immediately imposed himself imparting well precise and peremptory orders to which nobody dared to discuss so that at the end of the first command meeting Augereau himself said: “This small Corsican general has put fear in me!.” He had already become the idol of the soldiers since it was able to transmit that moral charge needed before the battle. In the meantime, in the whole Europe there was a politics of alliance with France seen the enormous power of the Great Armèe and either England either Russia of Paul I tried to start new negotiations with the Directory.

Therefore the enemy to defeat remained only Austria and Napoleon attacked it without delaying. The Austrian Beaulieu, general of the adversary army , was beaten in few days from the army of Napoleon, who, with half troops in comparison to Austrians, succeeded in conquering Nice and Savoia also forcing the Piedmontese to surrender. With a bad equipped army, Napoleon knew to make lever on the revolutionary and patriotic spirit of the soldiers and brought a rapid action to effect against the austro-Piedmontese, defeating them at Cairo Montenotte, Lodi, Arcole and Rivoli, and forcing so the Piedmont to the armistice of Cherasco (April 28 1796). Subsequently, he conquered Modena, Reggio, Bologna and Ferrara, which he united in the Cispadane Republic (October 15 1796), and then he took Mantua, last Austrian fortress (February 1797). The Italian states showed all their weakness in front of the arrival of French even if little time before that date there had been, under the push of the kingdom of Sardinia of Vittorio Amedeo III, the attempt of formation of the first “Italian league” to face the European powers, but the project had badly failed for the hesitancy of some states and above all of the king of Naples that remained terrorized to the sight of the first French ships at the horizon.

In the meantime, the Austrians were not only suffering hard defeats from south, but also from north where the French general Hoches and Moreau were trying to take possession of the left bank of the Rhine, desired target of Napoleon. Then, he tried to anticipate the colleagues and in 1797 spring he aimed to Vienna but the precariousness of the situation in Veneto, where the Austrians fomented insurrections against French, induced him to the armistice of Leoben (April 1797), and to the peace agreement of Campoformio (October 17 1797). The agreement foresaw that Austria entered in possession of the territories of the Republic of Venice, while the Lombardy, large part of the Emilia and Romagna and the territories of the Cispadane Republic were united in the Cisalpine Republic.
Once more the Italian patriots remained broadly disappointed since their dreams and their efforts for the birth of united Italy were broken and with them the principle of liberty and popular sovereignty shown during the French Revolution.
Subsequently, the French troops invaded the Lazio and occupied Rome, founding the Roman Republic (February 15 1798). Later it was proclaimed (January 23 1799) from the Neapolitan Jacobins the Parthenopean Republic that lasted only few months. The territory was regained soon by the king Ferdinand of Borbone, helped from the English fleet and from the gangs of peasants recruited by the cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo. The last problem was Genoa in which Napoleon tried to favor the growth of a strong Jacobin party and, considering that the project bitterly failed, he had to impose with force a constitution that was really a French protectorate.

How it can be read in some historical documents the project of Napoleon was greater: “He wanted to tighten in his own sails the impetuous wind of the Italian national movement. He had in his mind to use the enthusiasms of the patriots to build the system of the sister and satellite republics sisters” All this happened once more, as during the dominion of the ancien regime, damaging the Italian patriots since people were still exchange commodity between European powers and the principal objective of the Directory was to expand the French territories in those regions in which a political force existed able to transform them in “sister republics”.

The Cispadane republic and the birth of the tricolor flag

It was proclaimed on December 1796 from the deputies of the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, reunited in Reggio Emilia for decision of Napoleon. In that circumstance it was adopted as flag the tricolor (green, white and red). In the congress in Modena (January 21 1797), to which deputies of Massa, Carrara and Imola also participated, it was approved the constitution on the 1795 French model and deliberated the formation of the government.

The campaign of Egypt

Nevertheless, Napoleon felt a certain air of distrust in the government authorities and proposed a new venture: the conquest of Egypt. Such action had the pretext to destroy the powerful English army either militarily either economically cutting the forced passage toward the Indian colonies. Arrived in Egypt, he attacked the army of the Egyptians and it won it in few hours of fight; in the while, however, English Admiral Nelson destroyed the French fleet, making so Napoleon “prisoner” of his conquest. He knew, however, to maintain calm even if the situation was not simple. He began the organization of such state, but, when he heard of the Turkish intention to attack in Egypt, he decided to complete a military mission in Syria that lasted around one year without a definitive result. At the end of the battle, the decimated French troops were able to return in Egypt and to win, under the command of Napoleon, the Turkish armies that had tried to pursuing the French army.

The archaeological campaign of Egypt

It is up to the expedition of Bonaparte in 1798 the glory of the rediscovery of Egypt. The cultural repercussions of this adventure have greater success that his military victories and Bonaparte himself strongly promoted that work, probably to increase his fame. The created archaeologists' foundation will be of great importance either for the discovery of ancient Egypt either for the development of the Arabic populations; first important success arrives from the discovery of the “stele of Rosette” done by an anonymous soldier. Such stele brings three writings: one in ancient italics, one in hieroglyphic and one in Greek: it has been easy so to finally decipher the hieroglyph.

Certainly, Napoleon was not satisfied of the archaeological discoveries, but it got the occasion to publish several literal work concerning the campaigns of Egypt among which the most important is “the description of Egypt” that it also brings numerous maps and illustrations of the napoleonic adventure; unfortunately for the emperor such work will be published in 1822 only, one year after his death.

The coup d'ètat: First Consul on November 9 1799

The Egyptian adventure, however, was interrupted soon. Slowly, the Parisian monarchists took more and more power in France and during the election of the March-April 1797 they conquered the majority in the Council of the Elders and in the Council of the Five hundred beginning to restore a regime of monarchy. In addition to this, in Paris new problems had risen. The Parisians, that had wanted to found new France with the blood of the revolution, had to fight against the corrupt and negative behavior held by the heads of the Directory: Sieyès, Ducos, Barras, Moulin and Gohier. Napoleon returned in France, seeing the possibility to begin his climbing to power, allied himself with Sieyès and Ducos. Barras was discharged, and the others two heads of the Directory remained so in minority. His project was clear and anxious. In fact, he since the beginning had shown the desire to impose his personal command in France and straight, contrarily to the monarchists, he was not inclinable to develop any politics of peace.

The three allies decided together to transfer the center of the Directory out Paris to avoid interventions of popular character. From this moment the way for the coup d'ètat was ready. The Five hundred Council didn't like Napoleon and, after an attempt of beating against him and despite they were voting for his impeachment, the young general, with the support of his brother who had the assignment to simulate an attack so that to lift a soldiers' revolt, succeeded in sending away the five hundred French representatives and a little afterwards to found a kind of triumvirate with his two supporters, even if, just little time later he was elected first Consul, veiling the presence of Ducos and Seyes. The republican constitution (said of the year VIII) was modified, that assigned executive power to a Consulate, while the legislative one was to the rich middle class through a difficult system of representative organs; France returned to a centralized government apparatus. The Republic, after having denied with the coup d'ètat the principle of the representative and democratic government , entered resolvedly, on international level, on the way of the imperialism and it stamped on “the people's right to decide on its own”, that it had solemnly affirmed in 1790.

Press and propaganda

Napoleon is among the first to understand the importance of the press as tool of government and war weapon. He had the maximum attention for the newspapers, probably because since he was young he had been witness of the enormous effectiveness of the press in revolutionary epoch. Since the first campaigns, Bonaparte has care that newspapers were printed for his troops, but also for the new occupied countries and, even, for the Arabic populations of Egypt. However, Napoleon effected a strong censorship towards the press and in 1800 he let close more than fifty newspaper in Paris, while on the remaining ones he managed a strong careful control not to let spread any idea against the republic or against the allied countries.

The “culture” of the newspaper becomes for Napoleon a point of strength of his politics so that he made obligatory the reading of the Moniteur, official bulletin of the emperor, in the superior schools. In this newspaper they were contained the direct words of Napoleon who was often concealed behind the anonymity and the official bulletins of war in which the defeats were minimized and victories are magnified .

But the politics of diffusion of the culture doesn't concern the newspapers only, but also the theater that suffers a drastic reduction of shows, because of their negative effect on the figure of the emperor or France. Napoleon effected so a real advertising campaign favoring every form of cultural demonstration in his honor and drastically censoring the others.

The second campaign of Italy

Napoleon didn't abandon the international politics, however. The Austrians still constituted a strong danger especially in Italy where they still had the control of large part of the Po's lowland. The second country of Italy, lasted only two months, brought to the Austrian defeat and the definitive conquest of the north Italy. The enemies attended the napoleonic army near the Cenisio, but the French general became protagonist of a legendary maneuver surprising everybody passing the Alps at St. Bernard's pass. In the descent in Italy the powerful fortress of Bard was forced to the surrender improvising for infantry and cavalry a dwarfish passage through a path dug into the rock that revolved the positions. For the artillery he waited the night and moved the guns only after having covered their wheels with straw not to create suspicious noises. The ambush was the winning weapon.

He entered Milan and subsequently he moved toward Marengo where it took place the decisive battle with the Austrians. It was an uncertain and bloody clash and at 3 o'clock PM on 14 June 1800 Napoleon seemed to have lost, but the immediate intervention of general Desaix changed the face of the battle being arrived directly from Paris with fresh forces. So the Austrian commander who had already departed for Alessandria (in Piedmont) to give the news of the Austrian victory, had to return back to assist impotent to the defeat. The brave and decisive General Desaix was killed during the clashes and his last words, dedicated to the first Consul Napoleon, they regretted the fact to have acted too much few to pass to the history of France. The objective of Napoleon was not only that to destroy Austria. In fact, with the support of the Directory the French army conquered Rome, considered for a long time a neuralgic point if “it was wanted to conquer Italy. The other objective was then Switzerland that was set under the control of the French army and its aristocratic institutions present in the cantons in little time were eliminated.

Napoleon expressed himself at his best in politics

Napoleon was not only a “war machine", he was also a skilled political man as he showed when he came back from the second campaign of Italy. Before departing, he had emanated an order with which he declared : “The Government doesn't want anymore, it doesn't recognize the parties anymore: it sees in France only French.” According to these words he developed his following actions and really in the inclusive period between the election as consul and 1804, date in which the imperial constitution was promulgated, he succeeded in expressing the best of himself from a political point of view. On the base of the ugly experience of Louis XIV that always had in front of the eyes, Napoleon knew to listen to the suggestions of the men that had administered the state during the revolution who certainly, as the same Bonaparte admitted, "knew more than he does.” With the consent of the Council of State, the most active organ during the new regime, Napoleon promulgated the civil Code that enacted the disappearance of the feudal aristocracy and the personal liberty, the equality in front of the law, the laicity of the state, the liberty of conscience and the liberty of job.

Nevertheless, the government of Napoleon resulted more and more unpopular and it was not sustained anymore neither from the aristocrats neither from the Jacobins, while middle class didn't like the new Directory since it favored “scandalous” earnings gotten with the war and it didn't assure a peace able to increase the possibilities of commerce. Following the 1798 elections in which the Jacobins won, the government was once more forced to a coup d'ètat annulling the election of 98 Jacobin deputies and testifying so that the Directory was only a mask behind which the authoritarian regime of Napoleon was concealed.

The civil code

It was compiled by the middle class, or rather from rich that analyzed all the aspects of the life, and this is also evident in the code, under the visual angle of the ownership as absolute, indisputable, inviolable and sacred right.
Private ownership: it consecrates the abolition of the feudalism and the liberation of the earth exalting the land ownership.
Organization of the family: it fixes the secularization of the marriage and the divorce. For what it concerns the figure of the woman the code it completes an enormous step back since it considers her directly and unconditionally subordinate to her husband, she cannot perceive salary and she doesn't have any right to ask the separation of the common richness. The revolutionary principle of equality was disappeared.

The relationships with the Pope

Napoleon understood at this point that the reorganization plain of the French state it did not only need weapons and political ability, but also that element that Machiavelli called “strong adhesive for the popular consciences”: the religion. The revolution had broken the good relationships with the Roman Saint Center because of suspects bonds with the French monarchy. Also Bonaparte, during the first campaign of Italy had been very hard with the Vatican, subtracting numerous territories to it, among which Avignone, and allowing that Pope Pious died in a jail as a prisoner. But the skilled statesman acknowledged that the relationships with the Catholicism had to be reestablished, otherwise the human consciences would have become an unbeatable enemy and they would have hindered his actions. He sent, then, his brother Joseph as ambassador in Rome to try to reach an agreement. The operations were long, but, after two months, it was reached an accord: the 1801 Agreement. After that, the document was proposed to the Assemblies for the approval and, in 1802 to testify the reached peace between French State and Catholic Church, Napoleon attended in the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame the Mass celebrated to the presence of twenty bishops and the legate of the Pontiff, Cardinal Caprara. The importance and the motive for such action from Napoleon can be reassumed with his same words: “A society without religion is as a vessel without compass.”

Concordat of 1801