Everyone hopefully already knows the basics of Napoleon. He became dictator of France and conquered most of Europe before finally being defeated for good at Waterloo. I've always wondered: How did he not only survive the French Revolution, but rise to power in the midst of chaos? If I learned that specifically in high school I don't remember (it was 10th grade!), and my classes in college didn't cover that period.
Now I'm digging into Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts. I'm stubborn about books and usually only read one at a time, though there might be one fiction and one non-fiction. I've looked forward to this one for a while, but first needed to finish Undaunted Courage. I'm already reading this book far more consistently and enjoying it thoroughly. Whether or not you subscribe to the 'great man theory' of history, they can certainly be fun to learn about.
Let's get to answering that question.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean. Recently taken over by France (it's still part of France today), early in life he passionately believed in the growing Corsican nationalist movement. However, as minor nobility, Napoleon got into a French military school at the age of nine and left to further his education and begin a military career. He was a gifted student, and soon was ticketed for the artillery, graduating at 16 with a commission in the French army. He'd barely been home since he left. During his time he lived extremely simply, sending most of his earnings home to his family (who had money problems) and spent the little he kept on books, devouring them voraciously. He also wrote a lot, though apparently not much of it was great.
When the revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon basically went AWOL and spent a considerable amount of time back in Corsica. Over the next few years he became more of a revolutionary and broke with the preeminent Corsican nationalist leader Pasquale Paoli. His family was forced to flee the island, losers in the struggle for intra-Corsican politics.
You'd think that disappearing longer than his granted leave would be a detriment to Napoleon's military career. It turned out to be the opposite. A huge proportion of French officers were nobles, and this was not a good time to be in the French nobility. Most of them, if they didn't flee the country, were consumed by the revolution, imprisoned or worse. And since the army had a dearth of officers, his absence was forgiven. Napoleon also had burgeoning revolutionary credentials above and beyond organizing Jacobin clubs back on Corsica. Some of his latest writing got the attention of Jacobin leaders, including Augustin Robespierre, brother to the head of the Reign of Terror. As a result, in 1793 he was assigned as the artillery commander at the siege of Touloun, a French city in revolt against current leadership in Paris and its excessive use of political executions.
Napoleon was a major upon his appointment in Touloun, and it was his first real command. He got right to work, building up the artillery at his disposal by acquiring cannons from nearby towns and formulating an overall plan of attack on the city. Napoleon wasn't in charge of the siege but ultimately his plan was put into motion, taking a key defensive fort and unlocking the city's defenses, giving victory to the French revolutionary army. Following the action, Napoleon was made a general at only 24.
After Touloun, the Reign of Terror ended in a backlash against the Jacobins. Napoleon was even arrested due to his connection to the Robespierres. But the reaction was not as bloodthirsty as their predecessors (indeed that was the point), so he was released. True to form, he refused his given command wanting something better, and idled in Paris. Meanwhile a new constitution was drafted to establish the so-called 'Directory.' While attempting to set up this new government, another civil revolt broke out, this time lead by Royalists in Paris. Napoleon was made second in command of the governments defenses, under a man more a political than military leader who essentially left Napoleon in charge.
Again Napoleon seized the moment. He immediately sent men to acquire cannon and had them brought to the Tuileries, the former royal palace and the seat of the new republican government. The mob advanced, numbering an estimated 30,000 to the republican defenders 6,000. Tightly packing the cannons with small musket balls, a form of ammunition called 'grapeshot' that flew at an extremely high velocity and in a wide arc, Napoleon fired on the crowd. It had never before been used on civilians in Paris. As Roberts puts it, this 'was a testament to Napoleon's ruthlessness that he was willing to contemplate it.'
A few hundred people died that day, called 13 Vendémiaire, and Napoleon was credited with saving the revolution. He then quickly advanced through the general ranks. It helped his family immensely as his position was secured and he could pull strings for relatives. The 'whiff of grapeshot' took the Parisian mob out of French politics for decades.
At this point, Napoleon was not yet a dictator. But I can see how he advanced and where this is going. It actually helped that he was Corsican and not in France for big chunks of the revolution. He chose the right side of politics by becoming a Jacobin for the most brutal period of the revolution. And it most certainly was a factor that he was a master strategist and tactician who was ruthless when the time came. It still blows me away that he effectively used cannons as crowd control and it made him a hero.
Anyway, now I know.
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