Hi I’m John Green and this is Crash Course
European History.
So, the word revolution is a funny one, because
it literally means a full turn of 360 degrees.
Like, you end a revolution where you started
out.
But in history, revolution means radical change,
stark departures from the world that was,
and the messy, often violent embrace of a
new world.
The French Revolution was in different ways
both kinds of Revolution--in the end, an absolutist
government was replaced by an absolutist government.
But the change that emerged from the Revolution
was real and lasting.
It helped usher in a world where people saw
themselves as citizens of a community rather
than subjects of a king.
And eventually, a rising military star named
Napoleon Bonaparte would prove that having
your dad be king of France was not the only
way to become ruler of France.
[Intro]
Napoleon grew up poor in Corsica, but he loved
reading and managed to secure a scholarship
to a military academy.
As a kid, he spoke Corsican and Italian and
didn’t start learning French until he was
ten.
And he was bullied for his accented French
and for his overall tininess--although despite
what you may have heard about Napoleon Complexes,
Bonaparte would eventually end up being around
five feet seven inches tall, about average
for an 18th century man.
He entered the army as a second lieutenant
in 1785 and began to rise through the ranks
throughout the tumultuous years of the French
Revolution.
By the time he was 24, in 1793, he was a brigadier
general working under the Committee for Public
Safety, which as you’ll recall killed a
lot of the public in the name of public safety.
And then in 1798, Napoleon crossed into Egypt
with an entire army at his command, aiming
to disrupt Britain’s access to India.
In addition to lots of soldiers, Napoleon
brought with him scientists, linguists, and
other scholars to advance knowledge and also
carry off more Egyptian riches.
The Egyptians were impressed by the openness
of these scholars, but in general the French
completely appalled the local people with
their crude ways and drunkenness.
And even as Napoleon flattered the Egyptians
by declaring himself a worshiper of Islam,
he ultimately stole and desecrated many Egyptian
artefacts--although later he also stole and
desecrated lots of artefacts from around Europe.
He loved a plundered artefact!
At any rate, Napoleon ultimately had to return
to France in 1799, as his army and navy were
defeated by the British and the Egyptians.
And that timing turned out to be perfect:
The Directory, which you’ll recall, was
a five-person committee governing France after
the collapse of Robespierre’s Committee
for Public Safety, was overseeing a still-floundering
economy and fighting wars on many fronts.
Napoleon helped overthrow the directorate
in 1799, and quickly became “First Consul,”
and then took as his first task mending fences
with the Catholic Church.
He agreed to the Concordat of 1801, which
recognized Catholicism as the primary French
religion.
It also validated the sale of Church lands
and the state’s payment of clergymen’s
salaries if they swore to uphold the French
government.
And that was important because it ensured
him the support one of France’s most important
institutions, and you’ll recall our discussions
about how even dictators need support from
within their holdings.
But it’s also telling that Napoleon would
eventually be excommunicated by the Catholic
Church for annexing Papal lands for France.
Napoleon was also popular with the people:
He offered a solution to decades of instability
and economic decline.
He won majorities when he had his candidacy
for office and other decisions approved by
a plebiscite or vote, cast by men over the
age of 21.
In 1802 he had himself declared Consul for
Life and in 1804 Emperor.
Did the center of the world just open up?
Is there a bust of somebody who actually believes
himself to be the center of the world in there?
It is!
It’s Napoleon himself.
Stan got this in Paris.
I can tell, because it says, “Souvenier
de Paris.”
So this bust of Napoleon complete with its
armlessness and being cut off at the torso
and everything is extremely Roman-ish.
And this was part of how Napoleon justified
his dictatorial form of government.
He said “no, we’re just going back to
the Roman Empire...to the good old days of
ancient Rome.”
And dictators do this a lot.
From the Russian word Tsar, which comes from
the word Caesar, to 20th century dictators,
when your leaders start talking about reviving
the glory of the Roman Empire, get nervous.
Oh look, its half-French, half-Roman Napoleon.
So, during the French Revolution, leaders
promoted the ancient Roman idea of virtu—that
is, the sacrifice of personal interest for
the good of the republic, the whole.
Napoleon continued all that Roman imagery
but switched it from the Roman Republic to
the Roman Empire.
you can even see this in his journey from
being a Consul to being an Emperor.
He was portrayed in lavish costume and crowned
with the laurel leaves of a conquering hero.
“Empire” style in furniture arose and
women donned slim white dresses, free from
corsets and voluminous petticoats, in imitation
of Roman statuary.
And Napoleon saw himself as a modern Justinian--the
famed ancient lawgiver.
So to that end, he set out to have the most
celebrated jurists under his guidance produce
a rational code of laws.
Completed in 1804, the Code Napoléon (aka
the Napoleonic Code) standardized the laws
of citizenship, family, and property.
The Code made rules for financial transfers
and mortgages and for other legal transactions
concerning property standards across France
instead of differing from province to province.
And legal standardization facilitated modern
economic development.
But the other two sections on family and citizenship
stunned many for the way they impoverished
and curtailed most of the rights of women.
Under the Napoleonic Code, women had no right
to their own property once they were married--not
even the wages they earned themselves.
They could not serve as witnesses in court
nor have control over or guardianship of their
own children.
They had to live where their husband directed
them to live.
If they committed adultery, they were sent
to jail.
But men, in contrast, would only be charged
with a crime if they brought a sexual partner
into the family home.
I’m not making this up.
Lest you think that history is simply a march
toward more people having more rights….not
always.
But by creating laws that specifically targeted
the economy, the empire was seen as paving
the way for modernization.
And other institutions followed: individual
schools were founded for higher education
in engineering, science and technology, and
for developing a cadre of advanced teachers.
Napoleon also sponsored the creation of lycées,
or high schools.
Countries in Europe and across the globe imitated
the French legal and educational systems as
they too strove to become modern as well.
This may not seem like a huge deal, but consider
how different the world becomes as more people
have access to more education:
There are more potential innovators to solve
big problems, and more people who can use
the tool of writing to share their perspectives
with wide audiences, and more teachers to
train and educate future generations of professionals
and experts.
On the other hand, it’s worth remembering
that half of the population--women--were denied
not just most of the new opportunities in
France but also many of the rights they’d
previously had.
So, Napoleon initially succeeded in France
because he quelled the political chaos by
making himself an emblem of authority and
order.
Right out of the dictator playbook.
He also created a police state with strict
censorship and spies operating in everyday
life.
And he restored the monarchical system of
aristocratic titles and hierarchies, even
giving back titles to some of the old aristocracy
who could help revive the appearance of ceremonial
grandeur.
And so in all those ways, Napoleon was returning
to Louis XIV’s absolutism, so the revolution
did turn all the way around, ending where
it started, in that sense.
While members of Napoleon’s family often
became wealthy and titled, his enemies were
frequently exiled from France.
The most famous of his exiled enemies was
Germaine de Staël, the wealthiest woman in
Europe and one of the most accomplished.
De Staël never stopped criticizing the dictator,
although at first she found him fascinating
and even thought she might become his companion.Early
on, she probed him for an expression of admiration
of her talents by asking what kind of woman
he valued most.
He responded, “the one with the most children”
and pointedly gazed at her chest.
After that, she denounced his brutal nature
to whoever would listen, rallying opponents
around her.
But Napoleon had as many plans for Europe
as he had for France and he set out to conquer
and colonize all of Europe and the British
Isles.
He amassed a huge army by drafting young men
between the ages of 20 and 24, then he earned
their complete devotion by fighting alongside
them in at least sixty battles.
As he conquered German and Austrian territory,
he brought men from those areas into his armies
too.
And by 1806, he had ended the Holy Roman Empire
after defeating Austria in several battles,
most thoroughly at the battle of Austerlitz
in 1805.
Then he went on to defeat Prussia in 1806
and Russia in 1807 after they declared war
on France in succession.
Napoleon then forced or inspired reforms such
as the end of serfdom, legislating religious
toleration, and creating schools to advance
scientific and technological study.
And he unified German states excluding Austria
in the Confederation of the Rhine.
His imposition of the Napoleonic Code, the
metric system, and other institutions for
standardization helped to unify Europe.
What is the metric system?
Stan says it’s something that Europeans
do, like soccer and ensuring that all citizens
have health care.
One of the big effects of Napoleon’s European
ambitions was that it inspired a lot of nationalism
among his new subjects, who mostly opposed
his dictatorial regimes, in places where one
of his brothers usually.
I mean, for one thing, most of these newly
conquered lands were run by one of Napoleon’s
brothers, who’d serve as surrogate monarch,
and if you’re gonna live in a dictatorship,
you wanna at least be dictated by the dictator
himself.
Not some brother.
It’s like going to see the matinee of a
big Broadway show, and instead of getting
the big star, you get some understudy.
at any rate, this is important because people
began to think of themselves as, for instance,
German in part because they didn’t want
to think of themselves as French.
Napoleon’s goal was to colonize the entire
continent, and he mostly succeeded, but Spain
was still unconquered and thwarting his Continental
system when in 1807 Napoleon struck with an
army of some 100,000 men.
Spanish and Portuguese royals both left their
capitals.
Napoleon installed yet another brother (Joseph)
as king and resistance swelled—with help
from the British and Arthur Wellesley, who
would later become the Duke of Wellington.
And you can see the effects in art.
Jacques-Louis David painted triumphant moments
in Napoleon’s career, including his self-coronation
as emperor.
But Spanish painter Francisco Goya depicted
Napoleonic rule as a reign of terror.
His “Third of May 1808” shows a French
firing squad mowing down peasants and clergy
alike.
Goya remained a chronicler of Spanish resistance
and French barbarism, as tens of thousands
of French troops had to occupy the conquered
kingdom because of Spanish hatred of the conquerors.
Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
1.
Despite ongoing problems, Napoleon became
determined to conquer and absorb all of Russia,
2.
especially since it had opted out of his Continental
System.
3.
He built an army of some 600,000 to 700,000
men from across his lands
4. and began his invasion in June of 1812.
5.
Having trudged hundreds of miles, troops were
exhausted and overcome by the heat,
6. and the Rusians refused to engage in battle.
7.
Instead, they retreated, practicing so-called
“scorched earth tactics” by burning and
destroying any resource
8.
including food and livestock that could be
of use to the invaders.
9.
Finally at Borodino, the two sides engaged
in what was ultimately a costly victory for
the French,
10. who lost 30,000 men, while the Russians
lost 45,000.
11.
But the French were thousands of miles from
home territory, and so reinforcing and resupplying
their army proved difficult.
12.
Foreign recruits, who were not as loyal to
Napoleon, began melting away as winter approached
and conditions worsened.
13.
The remaining 100,000ish invaders marched
on from Borodino, some 70 miles from Moscow,
14.
but on reaching their destination, they found
the city consumed by fire
15.
—shelter and other necessities were once
again in short supply.
16.
Still Napoleon waited for Tsar Alexander I
to surrender and agree to terms.
17.
But when the surrender failed to materialize,
18.
Napoleon led his depleted, starving, and frostbitten
army westward to Poland.
19.
Many had died; many other soldiers had deserted,
and more French troops would be killed by
the Cossacks as they retreated.
20.
Only 40,000 of Napoleon’s soldiers reached
Poland alive in 1813.
Thanks Thought Bubble.
So, the European powers took note of the Emperor’s
bedraggled forces and formed a coalition that
included Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Sweden.
In 1813, their armies, backed by British financing,
defeated French forces at Leipzig.
This battle was waged because Napoleon refused
to accept the allies’ terms, which initially
allowed him to continue to rule France.
In early 1814 he abdicated and headed for
exile on Elba, an island in the Mediterranean.
A year later, he escaped, returned to France,
gathered an army, and confronted the powers
once more, finally surrendering on July 15,
1815 after being defeated at Waterloo.
Napoleon was living in exile on the distant
island of St. Helena when he died on May 5,
1821--thirty two years to the day after the
meeting of the Estates-General that set the
French Revolution into motion.
Consider all that had happened in those 32
years, and you’ll understand why this period
of French history is seen as so important
to world history.
Decades after his death, Napoleon’s remains
were lavishly returned to France, placed in
the Church of the Dome in the heart of Paris,
and eventually re-encased in a grander sarcophagus
under the church’s golden dome itself.
Why?
Remember that under him, French achievements
were massive in terms of education, commitment
to science, standardization, modernization
of the economy and administration, and opening
the door to opportunity for ordinary people.
Well, ordinary men.
French museums were packed with loot from
across Europe and Egypt plundered by Napoleon’s
armies.
In fact, those museums are still packed with
that loot.
And there were also the unforgettable early
military victories and the revival of French
cultural glory that led to the imitation of
French things throughout the world.
Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, who had been
part of the effort to drive Napoleon and his
forces from the country, would begin programs
in direct imitation of Napoleon’s.
And t he creation of a truly citizens army,
entranced by the heroism of its leader, also
endured, while his lightning attacks remained
a model to future military innovators.
The Napoleonic Code was imitated worldwide.
As Napoleon’s body was re-entombed in splendor
and pomp, one worker expressed France’s
general worship of the dictator: “I’ve
got the emperor in my guts.”
For better and for worse, we still have Napoleon
in our guts.
Thanks for watching.
I’ll see you next time.
