Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 in the island of Corsica, which was under France. He had mixed French-Corsican and Italian blood. He was trained in a military school in France, and during the Revolution was a member of the Jacobin Club. But probably he joined the Jacobins merely to advance his own interests, and not because he believed in their ideals. In 1793 he won his first victory at Toulon. The rich people of this place, afraid of losing their property under the revolutionary regime, had actually invited the English and handed over the remains of the French navy to them. This disaster, coupled with others at the time, had been a great blow to the young Republic, and every available man, and even women, were called upon to enlist. Napoleon crushed the rebels and defeated the English force at Toulon by a masterly attack. His star began to shine brightly now, and at the age of twenty-four he was a general. Within a few months, however, he got into trouble when Robespierre was guillotined, and he was suspected of belonging to his party. But the only party he really belonged to had a membership of one only—namely, Napoleon! Then came the Directory, and Napoleon proved that, far from being a Jacobin, he was a leader of counter-revolution and could shoot down the common people without turning a hair. This was the famous “whiff of grapeshot”, in 1795, of which I have told you in a previous letter. On that day Napoleon wounded the Republic. Within ten years he had put an end to the Republic and become Emperor of the French.

  Napoleon over Europe

  In 1796 he became the commander of the Army of Italy and he astonished Europe by a brilliant campaign in northern Italy. The French army had still something of the fire of revolution. But they were in rags and had neither proper clothes nor shoes nor food nor money. He led this tattered and footsore band across the Alps, promising them food and all good things when they reached the rich Italian plain. To the people of Italy, on the other hand, he promised freedom; he was coming to liberate them from oppressors. A strange mixture of revolutionary jargon with the prospect of loot and plunder! So he played cleverly on the feelings of both the French and the Italians, and, being partly Italian himself, he produced a great impression. As victories came to him, his prestige grew and his fame spread. In his own army he shared in many ways the lot of the common soldier, and he shared also his danger, for an attack usually found him wherever danger threatened most. He was ever on the look out for real merit, and rewarded it immediately, even on the battlefield. To his soldiers he was like a father—a very young father!— known affectionately as the “Petit Caporal”, and often addressed by them as “tu”. Is it any wonder that this young general in his twenties became the darling of the French soldiers?

  Having triumphed all over northern Italy and defeated Austria there, and put an end to the old republic of Venice, and made a very undesirable imperialistic peace, he returned to Paris as the great conquering hero. He was beginning to dominate France already. But he felt perhaps that the time was not ripe for him to seize power, and so he arranged to go with an army to Egypt. From his youth onwards he had felt this call of the East, and now he could gratify it, and dreams of vast empire must have floated in his mind. He just managed to escape the English fleet in the Mediterranean and reached Alexandria.

  Egypt was then part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, but this empire had declined, and in effect the Mamelukes ruled Egypt nominally under the Sultan of Turkey. Revolutions and inventions might shake Europe, but the Mamelukes still lived after the fashion of the Middle Ages. It is said that when Napoleon approached Cairo, a Mameluke knight, in brilliant attire of silk and damascened armour, rode up to the French army and challenged the leader to single combat! The poor man was met most unchivalrously by a volley. Soon afterwards, Napoleon won the Battle of the Pyramids. He was fond of dramatic poses. Riding in front of his troops before the Pyramids he addressed them: “Soldiers, forty centuries are looking down upon you!” Napoleon was master of war on land and he continued to win. But on sea he was helpless. He did not understand it, and he does not seem to have had competent admirals. England just then had a genius in command of her navy in the Mediterranean. This was Horatio Nelson. Nelson came, rather audaciously, right into harbour one day and destroyed the French fleet at what is called the Battle of the Nile. Napoleon was thus cut off from France in a foreign country. He managed to escape secretly and reached France, but in doing so he sacrificed his Army of the East.

  In spite of victories and some military glory, the great eastern expedition had been a failure. It is interesting to note, however, that Napoleon took with him to Egypt a whole crowd of savants and learned men and professors with books and all manner of apparatus. There were daily discussions of this “Institute”, in which Napoleon joined as an equal, and the savants did a great deal of good work of scientific exploration. The old riddle of the hieroglyphics was solved by the discovery of a granite slab containing an inscription in three scripts— Greek and two variants of Egyptian picture writing. With the help of the Greek the other two scripts were deciphered. It is also interesting to find that a proposal to cut a canal at Suez interested Napoleon greatly.

  When in Egypt, Napoleon opened negotiations with the Shah of Persia and Tippu Sultan in South India. But nothing came of them because of his powerlessness at sea. It was sea-power that ultimately broke Napoleon; and it was sea-power that made England great in the nineteenth century.

  France was in a bad way when Napoleon returned from Egypt. The Directory was discredited and unpopular, and so everybody turned to him. He was willing enough to assume power. A month after his return, in November 1799, with the help of his brother Lucien, he forcibly dispersed the Assembly, and thus put an end to the constitution as it then existed, under which the Directory had governed. This coup d’état, as such forcible State actions are called, made Napoleon the master of the situation. He could only do it because he was popular and the people had faith in him. The Revolution had long been liquidated; democracy even was now disappearing and a popular general held the field. A new constitution was drafted under which there were to be three consuls (this name was taken from ancient Rome), but the chief of these with full power was Napoleon, who was called First Consul and was appointed for ten years. During the discussions on the constitution someone suggested that there should be a president with no real power, whose chief business would be to sign documents and formally represent the Republic, something like the constitutional kings, or the French President, of today. But Napoleon wanted power, not merely the livery of royalty. He would have none of this stately but powerless President. “Away with this fat hog”, he cried.

  This constitution, with Napoleon as First Consul for ten years, was put to the vote of the people, and it was almost unanimously adopted by over 3,000,000 votes. Thus the people of France themselves presented all power to Napoleon, in the vain hope that he would bring them freedom and happiness.

  But we cannot follow Napoleon’s life-story in detail. It is full of intense activity and a hunger for more and more power. On the very first night after the coup d’état, before the new constitution was framed or passed, he appointed two committees to draft a legal code. This was the first act of his dictatorship. After long discussions, in which Napoleon joined, this code was finally adopted in 1804. It was called the Code Napoléon. Judged by the ideas of the Revolution or by modern standards, this code was not advanced. But it was an advance on existing conditions, and for 100 years it was, in some respects, almost a model for Europe. In many other ways he introduced simplicity and efficiency in the administration. He interfered in everything and had a wonderful memory for details. With his amazing energy and vitality he exhausted all his coworkers and secretaries. One of these co-workers writes about him during this period: “Ruling, administering, negotiating—with that orderly intelligence of his, he gets through eighteen hours’ work a day. In three years he has ruled more than the kings ruled in a century.” This, no doubt, is exaggerated, but it is clear that Napoleon had, like Akbar, an extraordinary memory and perfectly ordered mind. He said himself:
“When I wish to put away any matter out of my mind, I close its drawer and open the drawer belonging to another. The contents of the drawers never get mixed up, and they never worry me or weary me. Do I want sleep? I close all the drawers and then I am asleep.” Indeed, he was known to lie down on the ground in the middle of a battle and sleep for half an hour or so and then get up for another long spell of intensive work.

  He had been made First Consul for ten years. The next step in the ladder of power came after three years, in 1802, when he had himself made Consul for life, and his powers were increased. The Republic was at an end, and he was a monarch in all but name, and inevitably, in 1804, he declared himself Emperor, after taking a vote of the people. He was all-powerful in France, and yet there was a great difference between him and the autocratic kings of old. He could not base his authority on tradition and divine right. He had to base it on his efficiency and on his popularity with the people, especially the peasants, who were all along his most faithful supporters because they felt that he had saved their lands for them. “What do I care,” said Napoleon once, “for the opinion of drawing-rooms and the babblers! I recognize only one opinion, that of the peasants.” But the peasants also grew weary at last of supplying their sons for the warfare that was almost continuously going on. When this support was withdrawn, the mighty edifice that Napoleon had created began to totter.

  For ten years he was Emperor, and during these years he rushed about all over the Continent of Europe and carried on striking military campaigns and won memorable battles. All Europe trembled at his name and was dominated by him as it has never been dominated by anyone else before or since. Marengo (this was in 1800, when he crossed with his army the Great St. Bernard pass in Switzerland, all covered with the winter snow), Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Friedland, Wagram, are the names of some of his famous victories on land. Austria, Prussia and Russia all collapsed before him. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, a great part of Germany called the Confederation of the Rhine, Poland called now the Duchy of Warsaw, were all subject States. The old Holy Roman Empire, which had long existed in name only, was finally ended.

  Of the major European Powers, England alone escaped disaster. The sea, which was ever a mystery to Napoleon, saved England. And because of the security given by the sea, England became the greatest and most relentless of his enemies. I have told you how, right at the beginning of his career, Nelson destroyed Napoleon’s fleet in the Battle of the Nile. On October 21, 1805, Nelson won a greater victory still against the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar on the south coast of Spain. It was just before this sea battle that Nelson gave his famous signal to his fleet: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Nelson died in the hour of triumph, but his victory, proudly cherished by the English people and commemorated in the Nelson Column and Trafalgar Square in London, destroyed Napoleon’s dream of invading England.

  Napoleon retaliated by an order closing all the harbours on the continent of Europe to England. There were to be no communications with her of any kind, and England, “the nation of shopkeepers”, was to be subdued in this way. England, on her part, blockaded these ports and prevented trade between Napoleon’s Empire and America and other continents. England also fought Napoleon by ceaseless intrigue on the Continent and lavish distribution of gold to his enemies and to neutrals. She was helped in this by some of the great money houses of Europe, notably the Rothschilds.

  Yet another method adopted by England against Napoleon was propaganda. This was a novel kind of campaign then, but it has since become common enough. A Press campaign against France, and especially Napoleon, was started. All manner of articles, pamphlets, news-sheets, cartoons making fun of the new Emperor, and spurious memories, full of falsehoods, were issued from London and smuggled into France. Nowadays a Press campaign of falsehood has become a regular part of modern war. During the Great War of 1914–18 the most extraordinary lies were told unblushingly by all governments of the countries involved, and in this art of manufacturing and circulating falsehood the English Government seems to have been easily first. It had a long century-old training since the days of Napoleon. We in India know well enough how truth about our country is suppressed and the most amazing falsehood circulated here and in England.

  105

  More about Napoleon

  November 6, 1932

  We must carry on the story of Napoleon from where we left off in our last letter.

  Wherever Napoleon went, he carried something of the French Revolution with him, and the peoples of the countries he conquered were not wholly averse to his coming. They were weary of their own effete and half-feudal rulers, who sat heavily upon them. This helped Napoleon greatly, and feudalism fell before him as he marched. In Germany especially was feudalism swept away. In Spain he put an end to the Inquisition. But the very spirit of nationalism that he unconsciously evoked turned against him and ultimately defeated him. He could overpower the old kings and emperors, but not a whole people roused against him. The Spanish people thus rose against him and for years sapped his energy and resources. The German people also organized themselves under a great patriot, Baron von Stein, who became the implacable enemy of Napoleon. There was a German war of liberation. Thus Nationalism, which Napoleon himself had aroused, allied to sea-power, brought about his fall. But in any event it would have been difficult for the whole of Europe to tolerate a dictator. Or perhaps Napoleon himself was correct when he said afterwards: “No one but myself can be blamed for my fall. I have been my own greatest enemy, the cause of my disastrous fate.”

  This man of genius had the most extraordinary failings. He always had a touch of the parvenu, the upstart, about him, and he nourished a strange desire to be treated as an equal by the old and effete kings and emperors. He advanced his own brothers and sisters in the most absurd way, although they were thoroughly incompetent. The only decent brother was Lucien, who had helped Napoleon at a critical moment during the coup d’état of 1799, but who subsequently fell out with him and retired to Italy. The other brothers, vain and foolish, were made kings and rulers by Napoleon. He had a curious and vulgar passion for pushing on his family. Almost every one of them played him false and deserted him when he was in trouble. Napoleon was also very keen on founding a dynasty. Early in his career, even before he had gone on the Italian campaign and become famous, he had married Josephine de Beau-harnais, a beautiful but rather flighty lady. He was terribly disappointed at having no children by her, for he had set his heart on a dynasty. So he decided to divorce Josephine and marry another woman, although he liked her. He wanted to marry a Russian Grand Duchess, but the Tsar would not agree to this. Napoleon might be almost the master of Europe, but the Tsar considered it somewhat presumptuous of him to aspire to marry into the Russian imperial family! Napoleon then more or less forced the Hapsburg Emperor of Austria to give him his daughter Marie Louise in marriage. He had a son by her, but she was dull and unintelligent and did not like him at all and made him a bad wife. When he was in trouble, she deserted him and forgot all about him.

  It is very strange how this man, who towered above his generation in some ways, fell a victim to the empty glamour which the old idea of kingship exercised. And yet, often enough, he spoke in terms of revolution and made fun of these effete kings. He had deliberately turned his back on the Revolution and the new order; the old order neither suited him nor was it prepared to have him. So between the two he fell.

  Gradually this career of military glory goes to its inevitable tragic end. Some of his own ministers are treacherous and intrigue against him; Talleyrand intrigues with the Tsar of Russia, Fouché intrigues with England. Napoleon catches them in their treachery and yet, strange to say, merely upbraids them and allows them to continue as his ministers. One of his generals, Bernadotte, turns against him and becomes a bitter enemy. His family, except for his mother and his brother Lucien, continue to misbehave, and often work against him. Even in France discontent increases and his dictato
rship becomes hard and ruthless, many people being imprisoned without trial. His star is definitely on the decline, and many a rat, foreseeing the end, deserts the ship. Physically and mentally he is also declining, although still young in years. He gets violent colic pains right in the middle of a battle. Power also corrupts him. His old skill is still there, but he moves more heavily now; often he hesitates and is in doubt, and his armies are more cumbrous.

  In 1812, with a mighty army—the Grande Armée it was called—he moves to the invasion of Russia. He defeats the Russians and then advances without much opposition. The Russian armies retreat and retreat and refuse to fight. The Grande Armée seeks them in vain, and at last reaches Moscow. The Tsar is inclined to give in, but two men, a Frenchman, Bernadotte, Napoleon’s old colleague and general, and the German nationalist leader, Baron von Stein, whom Napoleon had declared an outlaw, prevail upon him not to do so. The Russians set fire to their own beloved city of Moscow to smoke the enemy out. And when news of the burning of Moscow reaches St. Petersburg, Stein, sitting at table, raises his glass to it and cries: “Three or four times, ere this, I have lost my baggage. We must get used to throwing away such things. Since we must die, let us be valiant!”