War and Game

By 1809–1811, the Napoleonic Empire had reached the zenith of its territorial and political expansion. It stretched from the Tagus to the Niemen, from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea. The family-minded Corsican Napoléon, now at the peak of his power, had given Europe a new face and showered wealth and position on his brothers, sisters and close friends, despite their grumblings, constant intrigues, incompetence, sulkings and indiscretions. The Kingdom of Holland had been entrusted to his brother Louis, as Spain had been to Joseph. The Kingdom of Westphalia had been created and attributed to yet another brother, Jérome. Napoléon himself was king of Italy, including Milan and Venice, with his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, appointed viceroy. In Naples, Joseph had been replaced by Joachim Murat, the husband of his sister Caroline Bonaparte. Another sister, Elisa, was made Queen of Etruria (Tuscany), but sister Pauline only received 1,490,000 francs and the castle of Neuilly.

Poland enjoyed a revival, having been turned into a French-controlled hereditary Grand Duchy headed by Marshal Lefèbvre, an old friend and veteran of plebeian origin married to a former washerwoman. The old Holy Roman Empire, created in A.D. 962 by Otto I the Great, had been abolished and replaced by the Confederation of the Rhine, with states, duchies, bishoprics, principalities and small kingdoms “protected” and controlled by France. Napoléon’s policy was a continuation of the policy of Richelieu and Louis XIV: to keep the Germans divided by encouraging the particularism of the client kingdoms and principalities in the Confederation. The satellite states were primarily intended to serve the interests of France, namely to provide the Empire with troops, supplies, and above all money, by means of taxes and forced requisitions. Napoleonic rule was, however, fragile, as it rested on military force. There was no way that the European peoples would have accepted French hegemony of their own free will. Once Napoléon was beaten in Russia, then French rule was rapidly shuffled off.

The parvenu, self-made Napoléon tried to give his dictatorship the trappings of a real monarchy, by creating imperial nobility, setting up his own court where etiquette was rigid and boring, and instituting high-ranking positions such as Imperial Field Marshal, Arch Chancellor, Grand Chamberlain, Arch Treasurer, and other sonorous and empty titles. The megalomaniac Emperor turned state occasions into instruments of propaganda, great public shows and sumptuous trappings of royalty. The image he wanted to project was an inspiring and impressive one, compounded of grandeur, patriotism, honor, and glory. He used every available means of propaganda: press, art, war bulletins, pageantry of nobility, and artful creation of his own legend. Despite the displayed splendor of the Imperial court, after 1804, Napoléon himself led a rather abstemious life in private, eating and dressing simply. Private reality differed greatly from the romantic, heroic, and superhuman portraits of him presented to the public by artists like David, Ingres and Gros.

Napoléon drew support from dignitaries and notables from the middle and upper classes—all those who had risen to social rank owing to the Revolution or thanks to their commercial or financial talents. The never-ending war brought changes to the imperial regime, which became even more despotic. Napoléon ruled by senatus-consult or by decree. Civil liberties were restricted and the press put under surveillance of Fouché, whose police played an increasingly important role. Arbitrary detention was reintroduced, censorship reappeared, and even art, theatre and literature were monitored for “the defense of the country and the throne.”

The Emperor was also careful to woo the masses, and for a long time succeeded in retaining their enthusiasm and loyalty. Whether or not people were happy under Napoléon is an open question, but in spite of censorship that became increasingly petty and intrusive, of the police that became gradually brutal and arbitrary, and of the heavy burden of the wars, hardly anyone, except the die-hards, regretted the Ancien Régime wiped out by the Revolution and from whose ruins had sprung the new Napoleonic rule. Once order had been established, the common people were able to enjoy the fruits of the imperial regime. The increase in the consumption of wine and meat was a clear indication of the improved standard of living. Most tenant farmers and laborers were able to live off the land, the cost of living was rather low, grain harvests were abundant until 1810, and cattle breeding was enjoying a period of steady growth and improvement. The imperial administration worked to introduce new crops (e.g., sugar beet, chicory and potatoes), facilitated industrial innovations, spurred the development of metal industry, gave impetus to textile production (e.g., the loom in the silk industry), and improved networks of communication. The creation through Napoleonic conquests and territorial annexations of a large market for goods encouraged inland trade, facilitated industrial development, and spurred the manufacture of new products. In spite of the Continental blockade and the permanent state of war, the imperial age was a period of economic growth. Fairs, exhibitions and generous state subsidies helped all forms of industry. Napoléon, a great believer in centralized control, was deeply interested in every phase of the nation’s growth, and kept himself informed of every new development. He distributed prizes right and left, encouraged, ordered, visited, criticized. The Emperor’s popularity remained intact, or almost so, among the common people, who were not prepared to renounce glory even though they paid for it so dearly.

All this, of course, had a price and required a great deal of money. The Cour des Comptes (Court of Account) kept a watchful eye on the spending of public funds while the newly created Bank of France stabilized the currency. The greatest expenses incurred were obviously for wars. These were met in part by what today would be called “reparations,” in fact plunder, which became a key aspect of government policy as long as the French armies were victorious. Plunder helped finance war, fed and paid troops, and also assisted the regime to become more firmly established. The demands of war obviously increased the scale of the iron and steel industries, but a widespread industrial revolution and take-off into sustained growth on the British model had to wait until the reign of Napoléon’s nephew after 1851. In the long run it was the wars that ruined the Empire.