On the Realities of Power (1796)

Author: (b.1769-d.1821)  Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military commander who took control of the government at the latter stages of the French revolution. He was born on the Island of Corsica in 1769. His first military successes came in North Africa and Western Asia Minor. Napoleon soon established himself as a reputable, popular general. He then used his military power to overthrow the neophyte, weak French government in 1799. He crowned himself “Holy Roman Emperor” in 1805 and reinstated Catholicism as the state religion. However, the irony lies in the fact that Napoleon, while possibly a good catholic, would not answer to the Roman Catholic Church as he took the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself. As Emperor, Napoleon expanded borders of the French Empire with his conquests (the Napoleonic Wars), and looked as if he would successfully conquer all of Europe. However, in 1812 Napoleon made a fatal mistake in his attempt to invade Russia. His main army (The Grand Army) never fully recovered and was defeated by the sixth coalition composed of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States in 1813. Napoleon was exiled to Elba, but escaped on February 1815. He took control of France and began to muster an army. However, he was defeated at the battle of Waterloo that June. He was forced into exile on the British island, Saint Helena, where he lived until his death in 1821.

Context: The work is date at 1796. Napoleon had just recently come off a successful military campaign against the Sardinia, and the war of Verdee. He was beginning to build his reputation as a brilliant military commander, and was acquiring more power in the newly formed Jacobin government. Both of the Robespierre brothers were now under arrest (it is debatable whether Napoleon had a hand in their arrest). This document is taken from a conversation that Napoleon had with one of his confidants. It also shows Napoleon’s inherent ambition, and thirst for absolute power.

Summary: The excerpt has very distinct Machiavellian undertones. Initially, Napoleon mentions that it was never his ambition to establish a full fledged Republic in France. He says a republic, would never work as it could never encompass all the ideals and ambitions of every individual. Napoleon then states that he is the army, and the army retains key French characteristics. He then discreetly threatens the government in power by stating that he controls the army, and by all extension all the military power in France. Napoleon finally states that the government should preoccupy the people with ideas of liberty to distract them, while in reality impose a more dictatorial form of government; a very Machiavellian statement.

Quote: “They [the French people] will amuse themselves and allow themselves to be led, provided the goal is cleverly disguised.”