Comment le général Bonaparte est-il devenu l'Empereur Napoléon Ier ? [QdH #57]

Paris, December 2, 1851. In the early morning, posters are placed in the capital. The President of the Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, launched a call to the people. The constitution forbidding him to represent himself in the presidential elections, he made a coup. The assemblies are occupied by the troops, the opponents are arrested, the press is suspended. Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew wanted to set up a consular regime, which would be approved by plebiscite, and refers in his declaration to the system created by the first consul at the beginning of the century, which would have given France rest and prosperity. Indeed, in 1799, while the revolutionary upheavals continue to shake France, General Bonaparte succeeds, following a coup d'état, to be named first consul. This period of consulate is crucial. The reforms carried out in a drumbeat allow to stabilize the country and end the revolutionary episode. The consulate mainly allows Napoleon Bonaparte to concentrate power, to the point that in 1804, the Republic becomes an empire. Let's go back to the period of the consulate and observe how Napoleon Bonaparte maneuvered to win one of his greatest battles, the one that made him an emperor. Napoleon Bonaparte is considered for many as the example of the type of military genius. Great strategist and tactician out of norm, his great victories are still studied today in the schools of officers. One of his great characteristics is the mobile and coordinated use of artillery, considerably improving the efficiency of his armies. The sponsor of this video, War Thunder, allows you, like Napoleon, to sharpen your tactical sense by immersing yourself in the heart of the action during modern military campaigns. With War Thunder, you can embody a tank pilot, plane, helicopter or ship, and face thousands of players around the world in epic battles, on many land, air and naval maps. 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And let's get back to our subject, the consulate. After Robespierre's fall, the French Republic has adopted a new form of government to prevent any tyranny. The Directory. The executive power is held by five members elected by the chambers, renewable by 5th every year. Thus, any brutal overthrow of the majority is impossible. The legislative power is shared between the Council of the 500 and the Council of the Elders. It is a return to censored suffrage. Only the most comfortable vote, about 30,000 people. Quickly, the constitution shows its limits and the strict separation of powers prevents any reforms that do not make consensus. The directors have no hold on the chambers, and the chambers have no hold on the directors. The blockade imposed by the English on France slows down foreign trade. Inflation is rampant. Many food crises hit the poorest, while the brigandage is rampant all over the territory. To this bad financial situation, a strong corruption of the rulers is added, who do not hesitate to use themselves cheerfully in the state coffers. Some reforms allow to keep France afloat, such as the creation of a body of inspectors of contributions, charged with collecting taxes, or the foundation of a discount box, facilitating credit. To this are added the looting of the French armies abroad, which brings a contribution to the welcome finances. The political situation quickly becomes critical. Radical royalists and republicans plot or launch popular insurrections. A good part of the owners, who only aspire to order, are ready to switch to another regime, authoritarian if necessary. The political crises follow each other within the directorate. The arrival of the CIA in 1799 changes the situation. They want to revise this constitution, which fails to conjure the ambient disorder. Problem, the constitution of the year 3 can only be revised every 9 years. It is therefore necessary to go through a coup d'état parliamentary. Its goal is to transfer the two chambers outside Paris, in order to avoid any popular movement in the capital, then to push several directors to resign, by subduing them in particular, and put the deputies in front of the accomplished fact. The system does not work, the country is paralyzed, and it is therefore necessary to reform the constitution. And for a complete success of the maneuver, it takes an armed arm, a saber, according to the terms of the conspirators, a general of confidence, who could discipline the reluctant parliamentarians. There are many choices. Sieyès first thinks of General Joubert, but he was killed during the campaign of Italy in August 1799. Barras, the most influential director, who allied himself with Sieyès, then submitted the idea of Napoleon Bonaparte. The two men have known each other since the siege of Toulon, and Barras called him in 1795, to repress a royalist riot in Paris. His military victories during the campaign of Italy have him honoured. In 1798, his political ambition pushed the directorate to send him far from the country, in Egypt, from where he had to cut the English maritime trade to India. He won some battles, but he failed in Syria. Bonaparte quickly understood the essential role of propaganda, and he managed to make this Oriental failure a success in the eyes of the public. For proof, during his return to France, following the appeal sent by Sieyès, he can gauge his popularity on the way to Paris. The crowd acclaims him. The organisation of the coup d'état can begin. For a company of such magnitude, powerful allies are necessary. First of all, bankers, in order to bribe the parliamentarians. Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, is president of the Council of the 500, which makes it easier to convince some members. The important ministers, such as Talleyrand or Fouché, are willing to support the coup d'état, but remain cautious. On 18th of August, parliamentary manoeuvres begin. The threat of an anarchist plot is stirred to vote for the transfer of the councils in Saint-Cloud. Bonaparte controls the strategic points of Paris. Flanked posters call for calm and announce that Bonaparte and the directors protect the Republic. The next day, 19th of August, the two councils are separated and the sessions begin. The Council of the 500 protests little, but the Council of the 500 is more vehement. Explanations are asked about this so-called anarchist plot and they want to swear loyalty to the constitution. While three of the five directors resign, as agreed, in order to provoke a governmental vacuum and the necessity of a new constitution, Bonaparte loses patience. He enters the Council of the 500 and demands the vote of a new constitution. He is immediately treated as a dictator, as a new Caesar, and tries, clumsily, to justify his attachment to freedom and institutions. Shaken, Bonaparte is evacuated. It is his brother Lucien who offers him salvation. He goes out to look for the troops outside, arguing that they wanted to kill the general. The soldiers, bayonets to the gun, enter the room of the 500. « Get me out of here » would have pronounced Murat, who seconds Bonaparte. The same evening, the few deputies who return vote for the replacement of the directors by three provisional councils, Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos, who must, with the support of two commissions, propose a new constitution in three months. Immediately, a vast operation of communication aims to make accept this change of power to the population. Posters are placed all over Paris. The objectives are clearly defined. Peace inside and outside. Bonaparte is presented as above the parties. No red heel, no red cap, no royalists, no Jacobins. He accuses neo-Jacobins, assimilated to anarchists, to lead the revolution to its ruin. As for the royalists, they would like to re-establish the old regime and erase the achievements of the revolution. Bonaparte wishes to end the sequence. The revolution is fixed to the principles that started it. It is over. The use of the imaginary of ancient Rome, already used during the revolution, seeks to impose the idea of a stable and powerful republic in which the people participate in public life. By assimilating to the Roman consuls, the highest magistrates who had military and civil power, Bonaparte seeks to establish a link between the republican greatness of Rome and this new regime under construction. To achieve it, Bonaparte has an action plan which can be summarized in five main objectives. The first consul has a preponderant power. He proposes and promulgates the laws, appoints the high-ranking officials, commands the armies. The other two consuls have only a consultative role. They are appointed for ten years. Above all, Bonaparte is not responsible in front of the chambers, composed of the tribunal, which discusses but does not vote the laws, it is an assembly of manchots, and of the legislative body, which votes but does not discuss the laws, it is an assembly of mute. Finally, the senate, totally subordinated to the first consul, as it appoints the majority of senators, appoints the members of the two chambers, according to a complex electoral procedure, from a communal and departmental list. It is also judge of the constitutionality of the laws, which will allow it to modify the constitution. The Council of State, whose members are appointed by Bonaparte, is created and becomes the legal advisor of the government. It prepares the laws and defends them in front of the assemblies. Finally, Bonaparte has the power to solicit the people by plebiscites, referendums, whose results are often manipulated. It starts immediately. The constitution is submitted to a plebiscite, whose results are trafficked by Lucien Bonaparte. The other two consuls are chosen to establish a synthesis of the political forces of France. A form of national union. Cambacérès is the revolutionary cushion, which must reassure the republicans. Le Brun, a royalist constituent, must bring the support of the elites of the old regime. The constitution of the year 8 marks the erasure of the legislative power in favor of a strong and authoritarian executive power. With this exorbitant power, Bonaparte has the free hands to eliminate any form of opposition. First of all, he resolves the question of the royalist uprisings in the West. The choices were already weakened and demoralized following the wars of Vendée. The first consul proclaims the religious freedom in the West and manages to lay down the arms. He promises them amnesty and places for the leaders who will rally. Some join him, others are executed or exile abroad. To purge the neo-Jacobin fringe of the country, ultra-revolutionary and which can still mobilize the crowds, he begins by dismissing 70% of the municipal staff of Paris, replaced by owners and notables loyal to the first consul. If I let go of the press, I will not hold power for three months, said Bonaparte. He establishes censorship on newspapers. 60 out of 73 published in Paris are forbidden. Theatres and shows are authorized, delivered by the minister of the police, Fouché. Bonaparte then uses the attack of the rue Saint-Nicques in 1800. This huge explosion, which aimed to assassinate him while he was going to the opera, killed 22 people. Yet the fact of a royalist, Fouché certifies it, he still accuses neo-Jacobins. 724 leaders were arrested, a hundred sent to Guiana, a dozen executed. It remains to be seen the parliamentary opposition, notably some tribunes, like the liberal Benjamin Constant. The renewal of the chambers by 5th every year allows to quickly suffocate this opposition. Bonaparte is generous to those who support him, the reimbursement of important positions or the financial rewards. For the dissidents, the means of police or political pressure allow to quickly make them enter the ranks or to push them into exile. In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte pronounces a speech in which he exposes his vision of the French state. We have destroyed everything, it is about recreating, there is a government, powers, but all the rest of the nation, crates, grains of sand. We must throw on the ground of France masses of granite. The idea is therefore to reorganize, to unify and to centralize the country through the creation of perennial institutions. To achieve these objectives, we must start with the nerve of the war, money. From the beginning of the consulate, the financiers who supported the coup d'état advance to the regime 3 million francs to finance the first reforms. The return on investment will prove profitable. It materializes by the creation of the Banque de France in 1800, which is a private company led by the great Parisian financiers who supported it. The government places the money of the lottery, of the award and the questioning of the general recipients. Indeed, the receivers, who covered the tax, had to advance the sum they were going to collect. By advancing the sum, the state ensures that it will not disappear with the cash. Quickly, the Banque de France treats some payments from the state and allows it to advance. It becomes the body in charge of the payment of pensions and rents. The mutualized risk and the support of the government reassure the financial circles who have easier access to loans. In 1803, the creation of the germinal franc ensures monetary stability. Trust in the currency returns. The coins put in circulation are also a political vector. The face of the first consul appears there, as well as the term French Republic. The Banque de France holds the monopoly of issuing new coins as well as bank notes, considerably enriching the new institution. Taxes are the subject of special attention. The regime maintains the taxes inherited from the Revolution and the Directory. It is at the level of the cover that important progress is made. From December 1799, direct contributions are created in each department, depending on the Ministry of Finance. 840 perceivers, at the level of the districts and cantons, depend on 99 receivers, at the level of the department, and thus ensure a real framework of the territory. Quickly, money returns and allows Bonaparte to financially restore France. He thus gives his regime the means to last. In the implementation of granite masses, administrative reorganization becomes a major element of the Bonapartist strategy. The prefect replaces the former regime's superiors and becomes the representative of the State in the departments. These are the indispensable transmission corridors between Paris and the rest of France. It is they who designate the mayors for the communes of less than 5,000 inhabitants and who lead the departmental councils. Bonaparte chooses men sorted out and taken by order and discipline. The instruction is clear, never be the men of the revolution, but the men of the government. The thought that founds the creation of the prefectural body can be summarized as follows, we can govern from afar, but we administer well, only closely. The missions of the prefects are numerous, to ensure the good development of agriculture and manufacturing, to ensure the good functioning of public instruction and charities, and to protect the negotiations, a class so precious, according to Bonaparte. Above all, it is necessary to consult, to dialogue, to go out in the field and to draw up statistics on the populations. This falls into a logic which aims to better understand the French population, put into practice as early as 1801 with the creation of a Bureau of Statistics which organizes a large census. Bonaparte pursues the revolutionary work when it comes to education, central in this period which wants to inherit the Enlightenment. Colleges and high schools are created in 1802, reserved for boys, in the idea of ​​forming an elite for the nation. The great schools founded in the 18th century, Mines, Ponds et Chaussées or Polytechnique, are now militarily supervised. It is necessary to model a generation in the same mold, according to the terms of the first consul. Engineers, military, administrators, all patriots and able to defend the interests of the State without succumbing to the political passions of the moment. In order to shape French society, a civil code, wanted from the beginning of the revolution but which had never succeeded, is written. The consul Cambacérès had already written a project in 1796. All he had to do was take it out of the boxes and adapt it to Bonaparte's requirements. Merging Roman law, custom and revolutionary law, it is divided into three large parts. Person, good and property. And puts the emphasis on an authoritarian and hierarchical vision of society. The fundamental cell is the family, in which the father has all the power. It is a code carved for the owners and the notables. Property is inviolable and sacred there, superior to freedom or equality. The civil code reflects the state of mind of the first consul and the ruling elite. Authority, discipline, conservatism, sacralization of property, superiority of the State over religion. In the idea of these masses of granite, several other institutions are to be mentioned. The creation of the Legion of Honour in 1802 aims to reward the civil or military merits, but basically, to attach itself to a submissive clientele thanks to distinctions. To Berthier, the Minister of War, who sees only a hochet inherited from the old regime, Bonaparte answers him that it is with hochets that men are led. In 1803, to avoid the vagabonding, a worker's delivery is put in place. It allows to control the movements of the workers and reinforces the power of the employer. It will last until 1890. In his first statement following the coup d'état, Bonaparte proclaims that he wishes peace, both inside and outside. The emigrated aristocrats during the Revolution can now come back to France, but they must swear loyalty to the Constitution, implied, to the First Consul. This notion of inner peace goes through the need to get closer to the Catholic Church, which was misled during the Revolution by the civil constitution of the clergy and the sale of the Church's goods. In order to rally the French masses, mostly Catholic, he signed the Concordat with the Pope in 1801. The Catholic religion is recognized as that of the majority of French people and not state religion. The Pope accepts not to claim the goods acquired by the state during the Revolution. In return, France commits to pay the ecclesiastics correctly. Protestant and Jewish cults are recognized and protected. Religious peace is found. Civil peace, meanwhile, goes through the establishment of military divisions at the scale of several departments, where gendarmerie squadrons and the National Guard join in order to fight against the brigandage. The police, led by an iron hand by Joseph Fouché, develops a whole intelligence and surveillance service of the territory. Finally, the judiciary is reorganized. Each department has a correctional tribunal. All these measures allow to end the insecurity in the country, but also to eliminate all the oppositions that don't suit the First Consul, by proceeding to preventive arrests. The search for outer peace was more complex. Bonaparte first sought the diplomatic way, through letters sent to the foreign powers calling them to the negotiating table. He thus demonstrated to the opinion his will to end the war and at the same time let himself the whole attitude to prepare his armies. As expected, England and Austria rejected his demands. To counter the Austrian attacks in Italy, he launched a double offensive. General Moreau contained the Austrians in Bavaria, while Bonaparte succeeded in a bold maneuver. Crossing the Alps with his army passing through the Grand Saint Bernard pass, as Hannibal the Carthaginian did centuries before. He thus became a bit more part of the legend. He surprised the Austrians and defeated them definitively. The Treaty of Lunéville buried the end of the war with Austria. The United Kingdom, isolated, finally signed the Peace of Amiens, which offered a few months of peace in Europe. It would be even more fair to talk about Treves. Beyond the Atlantic, the colonial question is thorny. In 1800, Spain secretly ceded Louisiana to France. Bonaparte's goal was to create a great colonial empire, grouping the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana. But slavery was abolished since 1794, and it was necessary to have a servile workforce to develop his territories. The pressure of the great planters, very influential in Paris, and especially of his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, from a family of Martiniquian slaves, pushed him to restore slavery, which he decreed in several stages. A great revolt broke out in Saint-Domingue, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Two expeditionary corps were sent to restore the situation. Weakened by a yellow fever epidemic, they were defeated by the insurgents. Saint-Domingue's independence, renamed Haiti, was proclaimed. Bonaparte abandoned his American dream and sold Louisiana to the United States for 80 million francs. All the actions of the first consul consolidated his power. The finances were restored, the bourgeois and financial circles supported him, the order was restored, the opposition was put on the bench, the new institutions stabilized the regime, the military victories were brilliant, and the peace with Europe, although very precarious, was recovered. For many, Bonaparte was a king without a crown. His support, of which many owed him everything, forced him to establish a new dynastic legitimacy to cut short the royalist ambitions. It started with a plebiscite. Napoleon Bonaparte, will he be consul for life? The will won at 99.7%. The Senate Consult, which followed the results, proclaimed Bonaparte consul for life. He could also choose his successor and his powers were reinforced. In 1804, a project of royalist assassins, supported by England, was discovered. It involved the generals Pichegru and Moreau, which allowed the first consul to get rid of those cumbersome military men who enjoyed great popularity. He took the opportunity to remove and execute the Duke of Anguien, who apparently had to regain power if the conspiracy succeeded, even if there was never any tangible proof. This affair was the occasion, thanks to a skillful propaganda, to distill in the opinion the idea that it was necessary to move to a new regime. In the shadows, Bonaparte's supports were activated to make the imperial idea accepted by the provincial officials. The army, through General Soult, brought him his support in this enterprise. In the spring of 1804, a debate was opened on the possible proclamation of an empire. On May 18th, the constitution was modified by the Senate, which proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor of the French. The plebiscite of November 6th, on the heredity of imperial dignity, won the suffrage at 99.93%. On December 2nd, 1804, Napoleon was crowned emperor in Notre-Dame. France thus attached itself to the dominant model in Europe, that of the hereditary monarchies, and ended the revolutionary episode. The Roman inspiration of the consulate is not without recalling the last leaps of the Antique Republic. The providential man, Octave or Bonaparte, gradually concentrated the power under a republican varnish for a few years. The principal for one, the consulate for the other, before reaching a tipping point that allowed the proclamation of an empire. Bonaparte worked skillfully and responded to the aspirations of order and economic recovery dictated by the elites. The financial gauges, owner and notable, assured him weight support. The peace found, the elimination of the oppositions, the establishment of perennial institutions or the control of the legislative power, all combined with an intense propaganda and the democratic illusion by the plebiscites, shaped the public opinion in the desired direction, that of the providential man, who ends the revolution and offers France its found greatness. Here, I hope you enjoyed this video. Once again, a big thank you to War Thunder for supporting the creation of this video. See you in the description for the link allowing you to install War Thunder totally for free and thus start your first online fights. As usual, if you want to support the channel, you can acquire this illustration of Bonaparte in consular clothes signed by the artist Manon Potier by going to the Tipeee page or KissKissBankBank. Once again, thank you to all the donors, without whom nothing would be possible. Once again, thank you for watching and see you soon for a new episode.