Chapter 18 PART I DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 3 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 4

4 Thermidor was the end of the memorable heroic phase of the French Revolution, as ragged sans-culottes and red-capped citizens who saw themselves as Brutus and Cato The end of the phase, the end of the exaggerated classical and magnanimous phase, but also the end of the phase that issued such desperate cries: "Lyon is no more!" "10,000 soldiers lack shoes. You take all of Strasbourg nobleman's shoes, and be ready to be delivered to the headquarters by ten o'clock tomorrow morning." This was not a phase of good times, for most were starving and frightened; A phenomenon as terrible and unalterable as the explosion of an atomic bomb changed the whole of history forever.The force generated in it is enough to sweep away the armies of the old regime in Europe like hay.

In the remainder of what may technically be called the revolutionary period (1794-1799), the problem facing the middle class was how to achieve political stability and economic progress on the basis of the original liberal program of 1789-1791.From then to now, the problem has never been perfectly solved, although from 1870 onwards a working prescription can be found for most periods of a parliamentary republic.Rapid change of institutions - Directorate (1795-1799), Consulate (1799-1804), First Empire (1804-1814), Bourbon Restoration (1815-1830), Constitutional Monarchy (1830-1848 1848), the Second Republic (1848-1851), the Second Empire (1852-1870)—all attempts were made to preserve middle-class society and avoid the double danger of the Jacobin Republic and the Ancien Régime.

The greatest weakness of the Thermidorians was that they enjoyed no political support, but were squeezed with the utmost endurance in the gap between the restored aristocratic reactionaries and the Jacobin-sansculotte Parisian poor, And the latter was quick to lament the downfall of Robespierre. In 1795, they created a complex constitution designed to contain and maintain a balance of power, to protect themselves from both the left and the right, and they shifted periodically, now to the right, now to the left, barely balance, but has had to rely increasingly on the military to disperse the opposition.It was a situation strikingly similar to that of the Fourth Republic, and the result was similar: the rule of a general.However, the Registry's reliance on the military was not primarily to suppress the periodic outbreaks of coups and conspiracies. (The various conspiracies in 1795, the Babeuf conspiracy in 1796, the fruit moon coup in 1797, the flower moon coup in 1798, and the shepherd moon coup in 1799.) Because the system is fragile and unpopular, inaction is the guarantee of political power The only way, but initiative and expansion is what the middle class needs.The military solved this apparently intractable problem.It defeated the enemy and not only supported itself, but also supported the government with the booty and conquered lands it plundered.Under these circumstances, it was not surprising that the last wise and able military leader, Napoleon, decided that the army could part ways with the fragile civilian system.

This revolutionary army is the most terrible offspring of the Jacobin republic.From the "all soldiers" of the revolutionary citizens, it quickly became an army of professional soldiers, because there was never a conscript in 1793-1798, and those who had no interest and ability to serve as soldiers, most of them All became deserters.So, this army retains the characteristics of the revolution, but also has the advantages of vested interests: a typical mixture of Napoleonism.The revolution gave the army unprecedented military advantages, and Napoleon's outstanding commanding skills brought it into full play.Revolutionary armies always maintained the nature of some kind of temporary conscript, in which barely trained recruits gained practice and morale from past drudgery, regular barracks discipline was irrelevant, soldiers were treated humanely, and merit alone The principle of promotion (i.e., excellence on the battlefield) gave rise to an army system purely by virtue of courage.All this, combined with a proud sense of revolutionary mission, made the French army independent of the resources that the more orthodox armies relied on.It never had an effective supply system because it was stationed abroad.It never had strong support from the munitions industry, which was too weak to meet its ostensible needs; but because it won battles so quickly, it needed far fewer munitions than it should have. In 1806, the powerful war machine of the Prussian army collapsed in front of an army that fired only 1,400 shells from the entire regiment.Generals can rely on unlimited offensive courage and a considerable degree of local conditions.As is well recognized, this army also had its natural weaknesses.With the exception of Napoleon and a few others, whose high command and staff were ineffective, the revolutionary generals, or Napoleon's marshals, were really more like brutish sergeants or lieutenants, promoted by bravery and generalism. Words, not minds, as exemplified by the heroic but foolish Marshal Ney.Napoleon often won battles, and his marshal often lost battles alone.Its crude logistical supply system was adequate in the rich countries (Belgium, northern Italy, Germany) that were already highly developed and plunderable, but, as we shall see below, in the desolate lands of Poland and Russia, It fell apart.The total lack of medical and health services increased the casualties of the army: between 1800 and 1815, Napoleon lost 40% of his army (although about a third of them were desertions), but 90% - 98% of these losses were not deaths Instead of fighting, they die of wounds, disease, exhaustion and cold.In short, it was an army capable of conquering all of Europe in short, sudden onslaughts, not only because it could but because it had to.

On the other hand, the soldier is a profession, like many other professions that the bourgeois revolution has opened to able men; have a vested interest in.This is what made this Jacobinist army the backbone of the post-Thermidorian government and made its leader Napoleon the right man to end the bourgeois revolution and start the bourgeois system.Napoleon, though well-born by the barbaric standards of his home island of Corsica, was himself one of those typical fame-seekers.Born in 1769, he worked his way up the ranks of the Royal Artillery, one of the few required skills in the Royal Army.He is an ambitious and disaffected revolutionary.During the revolution, especially during the Jacobin dictatorship, which he strongly supported, he won the appreciation of a magistrate in a hard battle, considering him a talented and promising soldier.The Second Year of the Republic made Napoleon a general.He survived Robespierre's downfall, and his gift for making useful contacts helped him through it in Paris.He seized the opportunity of the Italian campaign of 1796, which made him the undissenting chief military officer of the republic, effectively independent of civilian government and acting alone.When the foreign invasion of 1799 revealed the impotence of the Directorate, and the fact that it could not do without Napoleon, half of the power belonged to another Garnot, and the other half he seized himself.Napoleon became first consul, then consul for life, and finally emperor.With his arrival, the problems that the ruling government could not solve were miraculously solved.In a few years, France formulated a "Civil Code", reached an agreement with the Church, and even established the National Bank, the most striking symbol of bourgeois stability, and the world has the first secular society. myth.

Readers of the older generation or those of the old-fashioned countries will know how the Napoleon myth has been passed down through the centuries, when there was no bourgeois room without a bust of him, and pamphlet writers argued that , even for jokes, he is not a human being, but a sun god.The supernatural power of this myth cannot be properly explained in terms of Napoleon's victories or Napoleon's propaganda, or even Napoleon's undoubted genius.As a human being, he was unquestionably capable, versatile, brilliant, and imaginative, although power made him a dangerous figure.As a general, he is unparalleled.As a ruler, he was an efficient planner, leader, and executor enough to enable the intellectuals around him to understand and monitor what his subordinates were doing.As a single individual, he seemed to diffuse a great awareness around him.But most of those who experience it, like Goethe, do so when mythology has elevated him to the pinnacle of fame.There is no doubt that he was a very great man, and (with the possible exception of Lenin) his portrait is easily recognizable even today in the galleries of history by most people with a little education, even from On the small triangle logo, you can also recognize his hair combed to the forehead and the image of his hands inserted into the half-open vest.It makes little sense to compare him with the candidates of the 20th century to see who is greater.

The myth of Napoleon is not so much based on Napoleon's achievements, but rather on the fact of his unique career.This great man knew that those who shook the world in the past were kings like Alexander or dignitaries like Caesar, but Napoleon was just a "little corporal" who rose to rule the continent of Europe entirely by his own genius . (Strictly speaking, this is not entirely true, but his ascension was meteoric and high enough to make the above description plausible.) Every young intellectual who devoured books like a young Napoleon, Write bad poetic novels and worship Rousseau.From then on they could see the sky as his limit, and his name ringed in a crown of honor.Henceforth, the ambition of every businessman has a common name: to be a "financial Napoleon" or an "industrial Napoleon" (the cliché itself says so).It was a unique phenomenon at that time that when seeing an ordinary person become greater than those who were born to wear the crown, other ordinary people seemed to be inspired.At the moment when the dual revolution opened the world to the ambitious, Napoleon made his name equal to ambition.Not only that, he was a civilized man and a rationalist in the 18th century.He is curious and open-minded, but he also has enough Rousseauian temperament in him, so he is a romantic figure in the 19th century.He is the one who makes revolutions and brings stability.In a word, he is what every breaker with tradition dreams of becoming.

More simply, for the people of France, he was also the most successful ruler in its long history.Abroad he won brilliant victories; but at home he also created or re-established French institutions which survive to this day.It is admitted that most, perhaps all, of his ideas were pre-anticipated by the French Revolution and the Directorate; his contribution was to make them more conservative, more hierarchical, and more authoritarian.He put into practice what his predecessors had foreseen.It was Napoleon who instituted the plain French code, which became the model for the whole non-Anglo-bourgeois world; from the prefect, the courts, universities, and schools; French public life, the army, the civil service, education and law. Many of his "occupations" still bear the shape of Napoleon.He brought stability and prosperity to all but the 250,000 French who did not survive the wars he waged, even to the relatives of the fallen who honored him.Doubtless the English thought they were fighting for liberty and against tyranny, but perhaps most Englishmen were poorer and worse off in 1815 than they were in 1800; Definitely an improvement.Without exception, the still insignificant wage laborers lost the main economic benefits of the revolution.It is not at all surprising that Napoleonism, as the ideology of the depoliticized French, especially the wealthier peasantry, persisted long after his downfall. Between 1851 and 1870, Napoleonism was dispelled by his inferior Napoleon III.

Napoleon destroyed only one thing: the Jacobin revolution, which was a dream of equality, liberty, fraternity, and the uprising of the people to overthrow oppression.This is a stronger myth than his, because after his downfall it was this dream, not the memory of Napoleon, that inspired the revolutions of the nineteenth century, even in his own country.