Napoleon’s glory was a snowball of victories from then on. Even the sound of Napoleon’s name triggers a convenient response from his enemies. One of the peak illustrations of this fact include Archduke Charles of Southern Germany. He had already beaten the French forces in 1796, but he decided to order his troops to retreat when he learned about Napoleon’s campaign. He inspired fear and awe and took smart advantage of that as he advanced on the lands of Austria. The Austrians heard all about Napoleon’s forces hundreds of miles away from the capital. When word of Napoleon’s assault got to them, the Austrians quickly proposed peace. The Treaty of Leoben was drafted, and a more cohesive Treaty of Campo Formio was published thereafter. The latter treaty declared that France will have control over a majority portion of Northern Italy and its low countries. As with all treaties, a secret clause was enclosed, and in this case, it was a binding promise that the Republic of Venice shall belong to Austria. When that treaty had been settled and was underway for implementation, Napoleon advanced his troops onto Venice and coerced them into submission. Because of Napoleon, Venice’s a thousand and a hundred years of independence was put to a cruel end.
Napoleon basked in the glory that his victories offered him, never once stopping to question what the future held for him, and that was part of what made him a great military leader. He applied every single thing he learned from the military schools that he attended even to day-to-day events, a skill that could count as a hard-earned talent. This practice allowed Napoleon to think critically in and for the battlefield. It seemed to be the default direction his thoughts would take, and which ultimately led him to become such an efficient war strategist. What he took pride in the most, perhaps, is his consistency. He could no doubt win by weakening their enemies by stealth and surprise first, before launching into a full attack. Think of a lethal kind of embrace, where the arms could squeeze as tight as it could wound around your torso and crush you in half. This had been the strategy he preferred the most. However, if he couldn’t push through with this particular strategy, he usually went for the center attack, and simultaneously drive away the forces coming at them from either side.
In his military pursuit, Napoleon also cast a huge influence over the politics in France. He started two different newspapers with different purposes: one for his army troops and another for national publication. Royalists spread warnings about Napoleon, telling everyone who would listen that he is quite set on turning their government into a dictatorship.
The royalists’ fears were not unfounded, however. Napoleon himself ordered an authorization for the French to loot what treasures they could get their hands on. His troops gained around fifty-seven millions’ worth of cash, treasure, and goods from Italy when his campaign was there, not including the hundreds of classic, irreplaceable artworks such as paintings and sculptures, also stolen for their own.
Fed up with the royalists’ rally, Napoleon sent an order to General Pierre Augereau to lead a coup d’etat. The resulting scenario was, all Napoleon’s Republican allies was put in charge once more. They were all heavily relying on Napoleon though. Barras, one of Napoleon’s allies, negotiated peace with Austria. The resulting treaty was called the Treaty of Campo Formio.
Marching back to Paris, Napoleon was hailed a hero. Then, he met France’s Foreign Minister Talleyrand, and began to strategize for their upcoming colonization of Britain. The time frame he set for himself turned out to be unrealistic, and thus Napoleon was not able to prepare his troops in two months’ time. France’s navy was still too inadequate to face the royal navy of the British. Knowing full well that he had to fall back on his plans, he made good use of his time by setting his sights on another expedition.
He went to the Middle East to begin the colonization of Great Britain’s empire. He did this by first, occupying Egypt. In doing this, he was able to hit two birds with one great stone: not only was he able to colonize the Egyptians, but he was also able to disrupt the trade routes between Great Britain and India. Re-visiting a dream that had been snatched from him quite a long time ago, Napoleon decided that he wanted to permeate a French presence across Middle East by working with Tipu Sultan. An enemy of an enemy is a friend, after all. There was no surprise that Napoleon and Sultan got along quite well because they had the common interest of bringing Great Britain down.
The Directory had started raising their eyebrows at Napoleon’s plans again, so he had to proclaim to them a solid guarantee, that once he conquers Egypt, he will cement his relations with the Indian rulers. He also claimed that his new potential allies will help him in his pursuit to take down the English empire. Giving Napoleon the benefit of the doubt, the Directory acquiesced so that they may establish a trade route leading to India.
The French Academy of Sciences hailed Napoleon as a member in the year 1798. His expedition in Egypt was comprised of over a hundred and sixty scientists, mathematicians, chemists, geodesists, and naturalists. Their team discovered a lot of historical artifacts like the famed Rosetta Stone. The discoveries that their team made were published on an Egyptian science publication, Description de l’Egypte, on 1809
Backtrack to when Napoleon was only on his way to Egypt, he was able to conquer Malta when he made Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim surrender. Napoleon was able to add to his naval bases when he accomplished this, losing only three men in the process.
Napoleon resumed his pursuits of glory in fighting the Battle of Shubra Khit against Egypt’s military castle called the Mamluks. This served as a warming up for the French, applying the defensive strategies that Napoleon taught them to carry out. Once again, only a handful of men died in Napoleon’s troops, while thousands of men from the enemy fleet were put to death. The French army celebrated this victory with a bursting sense of inspiration and fresh bloodlust curling in their veins.
What began with an army of more than thirteen thousand men, a thousand and five hundred had gone missing and a thousand and two hundred fell to their deaths in combat. Thousands of unrecorded instances of turned out to be caused by disease, a major number of the blame was on the bubonic plague. To hasten their retreat, Napoleon made tough decisions that involved giving up on those who have fallen ill to the plague, and ordered them to be poisoned with opium.
Despite all the drawbacks and sacrifices that Napoleon had to make in terms of his men, he went back to Egypt and defeated an Ottoman who sought to fight them in Abukir.
Needless to say, this military campaign did not go perfectly. On 1798 in the month of August, the forces of Admiral Horatio Nelson beat Napoleon’s men in the Battle of Nile, leaving Napoleon’s navy with nothing but two French ships. This loss heavily tainted his reputation as a war leader. So much enemies heard of this loss, and this became the first loophole that they found amongst Napoleon’s series of successes. Hence, new challengers either emerged out of sheer newfound courage or a raging rise from the ashes. Namely, these challengers were Britain, Austria, Russia, and Turkey. These countries joined forces to make sure that they will be able to beat Napoleon when the time comes. Later on, these allied forces will make spontaneous appearances in Napoleon’s life, and they will slowly drain his luck and cause his downfall.
Napoleon stayed in the loop about the European news while he was in Egypt. He found out that without his leadership, France suffered a pile of losses stacked upon losses in the War of the Second Coalition. When the perfect opportunity presented itself, when the Great Britain navy departed from the French coastal ports, Napoleon left his army in the hands of Jean Baptiste Kleber and set a course to sail directly back into France, ignoring the lack of clear orders from the nation. Little did Napoleon know that the Directory had given him direct instructions to come back to France so he could prevent any possible invasions to them; communication lines were not exactly stable during those crucial times. As soon as he returned to Paris, the whole nation of France had improved by a large margin through continuous triumphs. However, their economy was at the lowest of lows, and no o
ne knew the Directory enough to inspire compassion for its bankrupt situation. Raging against Napoleon and throwing the blame to his face did nothing good for their situation, which was why they agreed not to bother giving him a punishment.
In the year 1799, these allied forces succeeded in bringing Napoleon’s troops down in Italy. Meanwhile, this loss compelled France to surrender many parts of their empire.
However, Napoleon would not give up that easily. Knowing full well that he was still hailed a hero in France despite his setbacks, he forged an allegiance with directors Emmanuel Joesph Sieyes and Joseph Fouche, Lucien (his brother), Roger Ducos (Speaker of the Council of Five Hundred), and Talleyrand. Together, they hatched a plot to overthrow the Directory. They succeeded in their pursuit through a coup d’etat.
When Napoleon returned to France, he decided to form a plan with one of the new directors, Emmanuel Sieyes. Equipped within this plan was a raw idea of a new government that he will lead together with Emmanuel and another one of their trusted colleagues named Pierre-Roger Ducos. Eventually, they called this government the Consulate.
The constitution led by Napoleon as First Consul ended up becoming nothing but a dictatorship. Under the rules and guidelines of this new constitution, most decisions lie solely upon the First Consul. These decisions include voting who may hold positions in their government, positions such as generals, civil servants, ministers, magistrates, and even the members of the legislative assemblies. This constitution was approved on February of 1800, with Napoleon as First Consul. Because of the constitution known as the Constitution of the Year VIII, he was able to secure his title as the First Consul through a rigged plebiscite. The election was rigged by his own brother Lucien, under his directions. They made it look like three million people had voted in their election, when in truth, there was only half that number. The regime tampered with the results to make it look like there was a widespread national inclination in voting for the Consulate.
As what could be concluded in his desperate actions and resorting to cheating, Napoleon had already been struggling to keep his glory days lasting, no matter what it took. He did his best to prolong his stay on the seat of power, knowing fully well that it was only a matter of time before the privilege will be taken from him.
On the way towards becoming an imperialist ruler, Napoleon constantly found himself in the middle of a dilemma between wanting to appease the democratic forces led by the Revolution and doing whatever he deems appropriate to be done and ignoring the forces all together.
In 1800, Napoleon’s forces ran past the Swiss Alps and into Italy with the sole goal of fulfilling an ambush against the Austrian troops that had come back to the lands Napoleon had conquered while the man in question was still in Egypt. After successfully crossing the challenging slopes and cliffs of the Alps, Napoleon’s fleet advanced towards the enemy without being detected. As expected, Napoleon stationed his troops according to his tactical plans of coming at them from both ends. One fleet was stationed back in Genoa, another French army which was instead led by Andre Massena. The army was strong and promising, exactly what Napoleon needed to succeed in their planned mission. His own fleet waited in Northern Italy.
Days passed as the two armies searched for each other, and at last they met on a June morning at the Battle of Marengo. Their enemy troops, led by General Melas, had more men in his army. He had about thirty thousand Austrian soldiers ready to take back their old land. The French troops were only comprised of twenty four thousand, six thousand short to fight the battle on fair grounds. Because of their sheer number, the Austrians were able to fight the French armies to retreat. Seeing how outnumbered the French were, General Melas sat back and relaxed, lenient and unaware because he was certain that the battle had been won by them. For the record, they were indeed winning at the beginning of the battle. But, where General Melas left the troops to his subordinates, Napoleon was a consistent presence among his troops, urging his men to never break their plans and stick to their strategy and rode into battle now and again. The French lines held until the tables were turned later that afternoon, when artillery soldiers back the French up in the battle, attacking against the Austrian fleet.
The next day, the Austrians acquiesced once more into deserting their land again after settling the Convention of Alessandria. This granted the Austrians safe, unharmed passage towards whatever land Napoleon has not claimed for his own empire yet.
Although glaring technical mistakes befall upon Napoleon’s soldiers during this battle, it was also clear that the risk he took in picking that particular strategy was bold and fit for a madman military leader. Historic analysts and strategists alike still hail him as one of the most clever military leaders in our history because of moves such as this one: invading the Italian peninsula right from the northern part of it, when in fact the larger part of the French army will enter from the west, along or near to the coastline. He learns his lessons from the past conquests he had led, and applies those new learnings to brand new missions. To do a recall, Napoleon had taken almost a whole year into conquering the Austrians before. Now, with combined knowledge and experience with applying his tactical prowess, Napoleon had crafted a strategy that allowed him to conquer the Austrians again, this time within a shorter period of time.
His fresh victory at Marengo sprung Napoleon back into the good graces of the nation, gaining more and cementing his popularity and political authority. Peace was still rather out of reach, which was why another set of negotiations had to commence. Joseph, another one of his brothers, was sent to get negotiations in Luneville underway. He reported that Austria was not being backed by the forces of Great Britain, and now would not accept that France had acquired the territory that Napoleon and his troops won. Impatient with the enemies’ stubbornness, Napoleon gave directions to Moreau to prepare to conquer Austria again. Moreau led the French troops to brave through Bavaria and triumph in Hohenlinden by the end of the year 1800. The next year, 1801, the Austrians finally signed the Treaty of Luneville. The treaty declared acceptance that the French now owns the lands they won.
Under his leadership, Napoleon had made immense changes in his nation in all aspects, but especially in economy, legal systems, and education. He also did not pass up the chance to make changes in religion, as he declared Roman Catholicism as the state religion. Aside from this, he also wrote the Napoleonic Code. In this code, he forbade all birth-based privileges, allowed religious freedom, and declared that all state jobs should only be given to those who are most qualified. As of this point in the era, the only country left that was still at war with France was Great Britain. Therefore, he also negotiated internationally for peace in the whole of Europe.
For once in ten whole years or Revolutionary Wars, France and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens. The British soldiers were ordered to retreat from the lands they had just recently taken over, with the reassurance that the French Republic will no longer seek to expand their empire.
As it is usual where it concerned Napoleon, the reforms that he made were vastly talked about. The whole Europe was finally experiencing peace and its economy was thriving and pulling through from the crumbles. Napoleon grew popular once more in the national and even in the international aspect. Hence in 1802, he was elected as a forever consul.
Being elected as a forever consul also meant that Napoleon has now the authority of keeping his claws tight on dictatorship for life. This time, the historical records show that there were no more secret ballots designed to make the elections work. To recall, two years prior to this particular election, the citizens were not too invested to voting that only over a million decided to take part in it. This time, three million and six hundred thousand were enticed to vote. The number of people who wanted to show their blatant desire to boycott the regime have grown less while the number of people who showed support grew a lot more.
The peace that Napoleon had negotiated for the whole continent only lasted for three years. However, a series
of events took place in this brief period of time. With this ceasefire, Napoleon was given more breathing space to direct his energy on the French colonies. During the Revolutionary Wars, Saint-Dominique (one of the French colonies) got an impressive level of political autonomy. The leader named Touissant Louveture appointed himself as Saint-Dominique’s dictator in 1801. Napoleon took an opening, an opportunity to pick this once-rich colony from the crumbles and stitch it back up like a crocheting project when he signed the Treaty of Amiens.
Unbeknownst to Napoleon, there were loopholes in the Treaty of Amiens that he was not given the chance to think about. By signing it, he had agreed to to appease the Great Britain’s choices and was forced not to agree in eradicating slavery in the colonies in which the decree of 1794 was not implemented before. Therefore, while the Revolution continued and the National Convention voted for the abolishment of slavery in early 1794, Napoleon was forced to adhere to the treaty and was not able to go along with the vote of the convention itself.
Confusion, Confession and Conviction Page 26