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What do you think of Napoleon's Legacy?
I, an amateur to the Napoleonic wars, wandered away from Ridley Scott's Napoleon feeling more or less pleased with my night. By terrible mistake I related to a friend who loves the Emperor that I enjoyed the movie, and was informed that the entire film was a piece of British propaganda. I objected that the British were hardly in the movie at all, only to be explained that the things Scott chose to highlight or ignore mostly followed the contours of the British perspective on the conflict. For instance, Waterloo is emphasized because the British played a decisive role, even though Napoleon stood no real chance of victory during his return, whereas the larger Battle of Leipzig which really ended Napoleon's bid for domination wasn't even mentioned because the British weren't there. And of course what about the fact that Napoleon only ever declared war twice while Britain was actively funding other countries to oppose France, and so on and so on.
My friend's counter-narrative of perfidious Albion being the real villain behind the Napoleonic wars is likely no more straightforwardly true than the narrative that France alone was at fault, but it's a helpful reminder that even today there remain vastly diverging perspectives on the immense impact of the man, the myth, and the legend of Napoleon Bonaparte.
For instance, there's also of course his political reforms, which are the part I found myself missing the most in the movie, even though they would have been impractical to include. A while back Scott touched upon a study by Daron Acemoglu claiming that long run growth was much higher in the areas that Napoleon conquered, due to him abolishing guilds, monopolies, and other rent seeking institutions. Rebuttals included people arguing that Acemoglu et al forgot to control for access to coal, after which you supposedly see no impact from Napoleonic conquest remaining.
Or military reforms. Was Napoleon a genius for coming up with military reforms like how to mobilize national resources and break armies down into self-sustaining units that could live on the land and rely less on supply trains? I've heard people argue these were really mostly Ancien Regime ideas crafted after their loss in the Seven Years War. Napoleon only took advantage of the flux of the revolution to be the one to ram them through.
And what about Republicanism and liberalism in general? Did he hasten them along by spreading their ideas farther and faster than they ever would on their own, or did he doom them for decades by encouraging the conservative monarchs to see liberals as a threat to be immediately stamped out, rather than a nuissance that could be tolerated?
So how do you feel about Napoleon's legacy? Was he an expansionist warmonger or a peacemaker driven to conflict by other powers? Was he a brilliant military reformer or mostly an opportunist riding off others' inventions? Did he leave a legacy of economic and political dynamism or barely make a dent? What's your take?
A lot of my knowledge of Napoleon comes from Wikipedia dives embarked upon during my read of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. (For the record, I was disappointed at that version’s slavish adherence to the stations of Napoleonic canon. A magician routing your armies and remapping Belgium ought to have some effect on strategy.) As a result, I’ve surely internalized more of the British narrative than might be strictly accurate.
The man was brilliant, in the sense that he’d internalized hundreds of years of military reasoning. As a result, he could judge capabilities and limitations at a glance. I think that’s a prerequisite for doing anything truly impressive on campaign. People tend to underestimate the fog of war, and before several of Napoleon’s critical battles, armies blundered past each other or failed to communicate. You can see how a refined intuition would be a huge advantage. Combined with his apparently ridiculous charisma, Napoleon was basically positioned to pull off dramatic reversals. Combined with France’s economic and manpower heft, he was also given a lot of slack. Eventually, though, the odds caught up to him.
His life beggars belief. Show up, terrify the Continent, suffer a setback, and repeat. Very impressive, but also only possible when the economic, tactical, and strategic stars aligned.
Great book, really brings to period to life. But Susanna Clarke obviously knows nothing about the military side of things.
It happens a lot with these Alexander/Caesar/Hitler/Gustavus Adolphus/Tom Brady figures. They win so much and so hard they see themselves as infallible and end up embarrassing themselves on a low-odds gamble, like playing football at 45 or invading Russia.
A lot of the entrepreneurial types are just built like that. Tendency to continually go all-in since it's all they know, until it eventually falls in a heap. I'm reminded of a small business I used to contract for that was run by a guy who'd gone from millionaire-to-bankrupt about 4 times in his life, and was still plugging away in his late 70's. He wasn't super intelligent, but he had weasel cunning and just kept headbutting brick walls until either he or they broke. Especially since he was aware that if he wasn't pushing himself in business he'd inevitably drink and/or gamble and/or whore away all his money, anyway. Kinda inspiring in its own way.
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