Napoleon and Nationalism Outline

The Taint of Hubris: Napoleon (1769-1821)

"Ambition is never content, even on the summit of greatness."


Hegel’s Great Man Theory:
“They may be called Heroes,” says Hegel, “inasmuch as they have derived their purposes and their vocation, not from the calm, regular course of things, sanctioned by the existing order; but...from that inner Spirit, still hidden beneath the surface, which, impinging on the outer world as on a shell, bursts it in pieces, because it is another kernel than that which belonged to the shell in question.”


“They attained no calm enjoyment,” Hegel writes, “their whole life was labor and trouble; their whole nature was naught else but their master-passion. When their object is attained they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel.”


HERE’S A QUESTION FROM A PREVIOUS FINAL EXAM:
Is historical change inevitable or the result of leaders imposing their will upon the world? To answer this question, refer to at least FOUR of the following: Louis the 14th, Peter the Great, Robespierre, Napoleon, Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm II (WWI), Hitler, and/or Churchill.



I. Introduction and Early Life


II. Political Life in Napoleonic France


“The Revolution is over; I am the Revolution.”

"I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought order out of chaos. I rewarded merit regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I found it. I abolished feudalism and restored equality to all regardless of religion and before the law. I fought the decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime because the alternative was the destruction of all this. I purified the Revolution"


A. Civic Code

B. Merit in Promotion

C. Continental System

III. Napoleon's True Love:

Napoleon and Josephine

Letter to Josephine Dec. 29, 1795
I awake all filled with you. Your image and the intoxicating pleasures of last night, allow my senses no rest. Sweet and matchless Josephine, how strangely you work upon my heart. Are you angry with me? Are you unhappy? Are you upset? My soul is broken with grief and my love for you forbids repose. But how can I rest any more, when I yield to the feeling that masters my inmost self, when I quaff from your lips and from your heart a scorching flame? Yes! One night has taught me how far your portrait falls short of yourself! You start at midday: in three hours I shall see you again. Till then, a thousand kisses, mio dolce amor! but give me none back for they set my blood on fire.



--and then--
Napoleon and Marie Louise





IV. Napoleon's Real True Love: War

“Retreats cost far more in men and materiel than the most bloody engagements, except that in a battle the enemy loses nearly as much as you, while in retreat the loss is all on your side.”

“In planning a campaign I purposely exaggerate all the dangers and all the calamities that the circumstances make possible.”

A. Major Victories:
Italian Campaign (1796)
Egyptian Campaign (1798)
Napoleonic Wars

B. Defeat:
"Battle" of Moscow: 1812-1814
(banishment to Elba)


Another soldier: “Napoleon has discovered a new way to make war; he makes us use our legs instead of our bayonets.”



Jakob Walter:
On the Grande Armee’s Problems:

“…often still living, the pig would be cut and torn to pieces. Several times I succeeded in cutting off something but I had to chew it and eat it uncooked since my hunger could not wait for the chance to boil the meat.”

“In order to obtain water for drinking and cooking, holes were dug into the swamps three feet deep in which the water was collected. The water was very warm, however, and was reddish-brown with million of little red worms so that it had to be bound in linen and sucked through with the mouth.”












Battle of Waterloo: 1815
Facing the Duke of Wellington
(Arthur Wellesley)

Napoleon on Waterloo:
“Ce sera l’affaire d’un dejeuner.”
(loosely translated, it’ll be over by lunch)



V. Exit Napoleon/Enter a New Europe
A. Congress of Vienna
B. Other Definitions of Europe
J.G. Herder "Das Volk"
Romanticism
Carbonari
"Decembrist Revolt"


Napoleon on, hmmm, life, honor, death…

“Death is nothing, but to live defeated everyday is to die everyday.”


Ernst Arndt
What is the German’s Fatherland?
As far as the German tongue sounds
And God in Heaven sings songs
That is what it should be!
It should all of Germany!

Ernst Arndt: (1769-1860)
Was ist Deutschen Vaterland?
So weit die deutsche Zunge klingt
Und Gott im Himmel Lieder singt
Das sol les sein!
Das ganze Deutschland soll es sein.


Tyger ! Tyger ! (1794) by William Blake ( 1757-1827)
Tyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forests of the nightWhat immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skiesBurnt the fire of thine eyes?On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand dare seize thy fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,Could twist the sinews of thy heart?And why thy heart began to beat,What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?In what furnace was thy brain?What the anvil? what dread graspDare its deadly terrors grasp?
When the stars threw down their spearsAnd water'd heaven with their tears,Did he smile his work to see?Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeDare frame thy fearful symmetry?