Episode 505: Consul for Life

and Europe's monarchies still arrayed against the French experiment. Yet, amazingly, from this chaos is going to step a single discipline which has everything to do with one person, Napoleon Bonaparte. Citizens, Napoleon declared that the Council of Ancients, after surrounding the chambers with his own grenadiers, you are sitting on a volcano. Let us save liberty and equality. The following day, amid confusion and violence, the legislature was dissolved and a new

provisional government, the Consulate, was proclaimed. By December of seventeen ninety nine, a new constitution had been drawn up, known as the Constitution of Year eight. It created three consuls, but all power rested with the first Napoleon. The title was modest, but the reality was frankly monarchy. Later on that very winter, Napoleon would tell a companion, the revolution is over. I am the revolution now. Napoleon's first task

was not to conquer, but to rebuild. In the winter of seventeen ninety nine to eighteen hundred, France teetered on the edge of financial ruin and civil war. Roads lay broken, bannedits prowled the countryside, and the assignant paper currency was effectively worthless. The new council imposed order with astonishing energy. He summoned France's greatest administrators, comberss Lebrun and, of course Talleyrand, who began to centralize government authority. Prefix replaced elected officials

in the Department's mayors were appointed from Paris. The judiciary was reconstructed, and the treasury reformed under the capable hand of Gaudeen. The Bank of France was founded in eighteen hundred to stabilize credit. Napoleon understood that stability was a precondition for expansion, for loyalty for everything. He also actually courted religion. Since seventeen ninety the church in France had really been at war with the state. Priests had been exiled,

churches desecrated, and faith driven underground. Napoleon, though he was personally indifferent to religion, saw it as a tool for unity. In letters to Pope Pious the Seventh, he promised reconciliation. Society cannot exist without morality, he wrote, and there is no good morality without religion. But while he governed Europe was watching across the channel. William Pitt, the younger, Britain's Prime minister, regarded this ambitious Corsican general with deep suspicion.

In Austria and Russia, Monarch's whispered of this military caesar who had dethroned liberty In France. The Second Coalition from the year before was technically still at war with the Republic, and it would not be logged before Bonaparte returned to his true profession, the art of war. By the spring of the year eighteen hundred, France faced enemies on two fronts, the Austrians in Italy and the Germans beyond the Rhine.

In Italy, General Molass's Austrian army had retaken now just about everything Napoleon had conquered back in seventeen ninety six, and so to reclaim his own glory. Napoleon planned one of the boldest campaigns in modern history. Like Hannibal, he would cross the Alps, not by the wide, obvious passes, but through the treacherous Great Saint Bernard, still snowbound even in May. His army of forty thousand dragged cannon by hand,

disassembling them and hoisting the parts with ropes. Soldiers hauled provisions on their backs or on mules that slipped and died on the icy cliffs. At the summit, Napoleon paused before Jacques Luis da Vide men who were painting a famous equestrian portrait that would immortalize him, rearing upon a horse. You guys have all seen it over the words Bonaparte, Hannibal, Carlos Magnus. The crossing of the Alps again astonished Europe.

Some things never get old. Within weeks, Napoleon had descended into northern Italy, surprising the Austrian forces from the rear. On June the ninth, eighteen hundred, he fought the first engagement at Montebello, where General Lane's corpse crushed the Austrians and pushed them back towards Alessandria. Three days later came the decisive battle, the first real decisive battle of Napoleon's career, the Battle of Marengo, fought on June the fourteenth, the

year eighteen hundred. The battlefield of Marengo is near the village of Spine, at the outside the town of Alessandria, in the Po River valley, where, like Hannibal in the past, Napoleon would once again make his name. Napoleon believed that the Austrian army was retreating and advanced without his full force. That was a grave miscalculation. At dawn on June fourteenth, Melus launched a furious attack with thirty thousand men against

Napoleon's twenty two thousand. The Austrians struck, smashing through the French line at the Fontinan Stream. For hours, the French fell back. By midday, Napoleon's army was near collapse. His aides begged him to retreat toward the Bormida River, but the First Council refused, saying quote there is still time to win another battle, sending his couriersers racing back for reinforcements under nearby General Dessau. At five pm, Dessau arrived

with French troops just fresh. Just as the Austrians, convinced of victory, had begun to loosen up on their pursuit of their enemy, Dissau's counterattack, supported by critical cavalry, broke through the Austrian center. Dissao, unfortunately for him, was shot dead just at the moment of his own triumph, telling one of his aides, quote, go tell the first Council that I die with regret that I have not done enough for posterity end quote. You just don't get things

like that anymore, do you, folks. By nightfall, Mellus's army the Austrians was in full retreat. The victory at Marengo transformed Napoleon's political position. He returned to Paris a hero. The Directory had fallen in disgrace. The Republic was now reborn under one man's command. Tally Rand whispered to foreign diplomats that France once again quote had a government capable

of making peace end quote. Immediately, the Austrian Emperor Francis the Second sued for peace, and negotiations at Luneville in February eighteen oh one confirmed what had been established at Campo Formio. Four years earlier. France would now hold the Rhine frontier, all of Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. In Italy, sisal Pine, gal and Liguria were

re established under French influence. They weren't annexed directly, and this is going to be one of those sort of hallmarks of the Napoleonic period where instead of France annexing territory is going to create essentially satellite states which are completely under their control. Russia, which had joined the war back in seventeen ninety nine under Czar Paul I, now

withdrew from the Alliance. The British fleet's attack on Copenhagen in eighteen oh one outraged Saur Paul, who was already alienated from London, and so by the end of the year the Second Coalition had totally disintegrated and France for the moment under Napoleon stood victorious. In Britain, William Pitt the Younger resigned and in new Ministry under Henry Addington sought peace. The British economy had suffered under years of

blockade and war weariness spread throughout Parliament in Westminster. Across the Atlantic, the United States under President Thomas Jefferson watched carefully. The young Republic admired Napoleon's administrative genius, but feared his ambition. The French sale of Louisiana, which we'll get into still years away, was already being whispered about in diplomatic circles. Napoleon meanwhile turned his attention from Europe to the wider world.

Though the Egyptian campaign had ended in failure in seventeen ninety nine, Napoleon contin new to see the Mediterranean and the Near East as theaters for French influence. The British, led by Admiral Nelson, had destroyed the French feet at Abukar Bay as we know, and controlled the seas, but Buonaparte found other ways to expand French power and influence.

In eighteen o one, he dispatched General Leclerc, his brother in law, to San Daman Haiti, to restore French control over the richest sugar colony in the world, which have been in revolt since seventeen ninety one. As we know, the mission was catastrophic to Saint Louvistour, the brilliant black general who had led the revolution, resisted fiercely disease and guerrilla warfare annihilated the French army. Honestly, by eighteen oh three, France would lose not just Haiti but any realistic hope

of a new world empire. These defeats were years away in eighteen oh one, and Napoleon's prestige at home was growing. However, Napoleon's genius, I want to point out here lay as much an administration as it did in war. In July of eighteen oh one, he concluded the Concordat with Pope Pious the Seventh, a political masterpiece that restored Catholicism as quote the religion of the great majority of French citizens end quote, while keeping simultaneously the church under the state control.

In Paris. Bishops were appointed by the French government but later confirmed by Rome, and the Pope agreed to forget the confiscations of church lands. The Concordat was critical because it sued the countryside. Remember the Vendee and that long fueled rebellion there well. The Concordat finally ended that, and it elevated Napoleon in the eyes of Europe. The former revolutionary general was now a peacemaker with the Church of all things at home. New institutions sprang up in rapid succession.

The Legion of Honor was created to reward merit, The education system was reformed completely. Laws were codified in what would eventually become the Cold Napoleon. Napoleon, in fact, later writes, my true glory is not that I won forty battles, but that I created the civil code. In March of eighteen oh two, France and Britain signed the Treaty of Ames, the first piece between the two nations in about ten years.

The terms were favorable to France. Britain restored most of its colonial conquests will France agreed to evacuate Naples in Egypt. For a brief moment, I will underline that phrase Europe was at peace. In Paris, theaters celebrated with patriotic dramas and illuminations. The press declared the peace of the world.

Napoleon used the respite to consolidate his rule. He reorganized the administration of the French Republic into his stable authoritarian system, with the Council des Atat drafting laws under his direction, and a network of prefects ensuring obedience in every department. But this piece concealed a deeper transformation. In August eighteen oh two, the Senate approved a new constitution of year ten by plebiscite. Napoleon was now named first Consul for life.

The result, this is true, a staggering three million, five hundred and sixty eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty five votes in favor of Napoleon becoming Consul for life, compared to eight thousand, three hundred and seventy four opposed, some of which I assume just checked the wrong box. Napoleon's victory was now a foregone conclusion, at least in politics. The Republic was now little more than a facade. The Senate said, we have achieved the revolution's aims. Equality before

the law, property secured, and peace abroad. That was a lie. Napoleon had achieved all of that, not the Senate, but at the price of liberty. Now the crown heads of Europe watched with wary fascination. In London, newspapers alternated between admiration and dread. He has given France order, wrote The Times in London, But at what costs to Europe's repose.

Czar Alexander, the first newly ascended to the Russian throne after his father's assassination in eighteen oh one, flirted with the idea of alliance, but he didn't trust Napoleon or his ambitions, and in Vienna the Habsburgs licked their wounds and began quiet rearmament. Across the pond, in Washington, President Jefferson, who was himself a revolutionary, watched a fine line between

ideological sympathy and pragmatic caution. The United States and France were technically at peace after the Convention of eighteen hundred, but relations remained strained from the quasi War of seventeen ninety eight to eighteen hundred. Still, Jefferson recognized the value of having Napoleon as a counterweight to British naval power France. He would write to James Monroe, another future president is now governed by one man of transcendent ability. Let us

hope his ambition is bounded by reason. By the summer of eighteen oh two, France was transformed. Odes were rebuilt, finances stabilized, and law and order restored. The calendar of the revolution still lingered. The year was still technically year ten, but the spirit of the monarchy had returned in all but name. Paris pulsed with energy, Soldiers drilled in the tuleries, engineers surveyed canals, and bureaucrats worked under the shadow of

the increasingly omnipotent First Council for life. A British traveler, John Carr observed, quote the people appear content, the soldiers adore him, and the politicians fear him end quote. Honestly, I think he got it right. It was that mixture of fear, adoration, and just general weariness and contentness that made Napoleon possible. The world believed that peace had come. What they didn't know was that Napoleon was already dreaming beyond it. A true man of genius, he once said,

can stop himself at nothing short of the infinite. The Republic had become his instrument in Europe would soon become his stage. But before we talk about that, I do want to actually talk about the Louisiana purpose, because events in distant San Deman were soon to interrupt Napoleon's dreams for Europe. It's been a bit, so before we move forward, let's quick recap. In the late eighteenth century, Sandman had been the crown jewel of France's overseas empire on the

western half of the island, Hispaniola. Enslaved Africans labored under brutal conditions to produce sugar, a ton of coffee, and indigoes, which was all commodities that poured unimaginable wealth into the coffers of the Parisian merchants. Sandoman, by seventeen ninety was the richest colony in all the world and generated about

two thirds of France's overseas trade. But as we know, when the revolution broke out in France in seventeen eighty nine, the language of liberty, egalate in fraternity made its way across the Atlantic too. The enslaved population, about half a million people, heard those words and thought, well, why aren't we free. In August seventeen ninety one, the island erupted

in the largest slave uprising in human history. Plantations were burned, white planters fled to the coast or the United States, and the revolutionary chaos in Europe meant that Paris couldn't respond effectively. Remember, we're kind of going into the period of the terror as well. By seventeen ninety four, the situation had been transformed completely. The French National Convention, desperate to hold onto its colony and facing British and Spanish invasions,

went ahead and just abolished slavery throughout the empire. And this was exactly when Dussaint louv Tour, the self educated former slave who was capable of general as anyone in Europe arose. Louvy Tour effectively fought off the Spanish, the British, and then internal rivals. By the turn of the century had made himself the Governor General of Sandeman under what

had become sort of nominal French authority. While all this was going on, of course, this is exactly when the young and ambitious Napoleon sees his power as First Council in seventeen ninety nine and then subsequently becomes Council for life. Now, Napoleon dreamed of restoring France's global empire. The Caribbean, especially Sandeman, was to be the economic engine for a grand French presence in the Americas. To feed that Caribbean empire, Napoleon

envisioned a vast French agricultural base on the North American continent. Louisiana, recently reclaimed from Spain through secret diplomacy, So let's talk about that. Under the secret Treaty of San Idifencio in eighteen hundred, Spain agreed to retroceed Louisiana back to fran rants. Though the treaty was kept secret for a time, the

news quickly alarmed American leaders. Louisiana, which kind of generally we didn't have exact lines on the map, stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, controlled the outlet for goods of the entire western frontier of what was then the fledgling United States. President Thomas Jefferson was an agrarian idealist, yes, but also a shrewd realist at times understood that whoever controlled the Mississippi and especially New Orleans,

controlled the destiny of the United States. But Jefferson wanted to resolve the issue peacefully, and so he dispatched envoys to France to negotiate the purchase of the city of New Orleans and maybe a small strip of territory along the lower Mississippi. Napoleon, for his part, had other priorities until events in the Caribbean began to unravel his vast ambitions.

As I said, before. In eighteen o two, Napoleon sent a large expeditionary force under his brother in law, General Charles Leclerc, to Saint demand his orders were clear, reasserted French authority, disarmed Toussaint louvs Tour's army, and just restore the plantation system. In other words, let's just go back in time about ten years. Secretly, many in the French government also hoped to reinstate slavery, which had been abolished

by the revolutionary government years earlier. It's unclear if that was Napoleon's plan, by the way, At first the French forces overwhelmed and succeeded. Louvs Tour, betrayed by his rivals, was captured and sent to France, where he died in a freezing prison cell in eighteen o three, but his warning uttered before his departure would later prove prophetic quote in overthrowing me, you have cut down only a trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring up again

by the roots, for they are numerous and deep. Almost immediately, yellow fever swept through the French army. Of the roughly forty thousand men sent to the island, fewer than a quarter survived. By late eighteen oh three, of the French were driven out entirely. Haiti declared its independence on January the first, eighteen oh four, the first black republic in the world and the first nation born from a successful

slave revolt. For Napoleon, the loss was devastating. Without Sandeman, the rest of his American empire didn't make any sense. The sugar plantations were gone, the slave labor that fueled them gone, and the French treasury effectively gone by the attempt to suppress the revolt. Meanwhile, war with Great Britain loomed once again in Europe. Napoleon needed money, he needed it fast, and actually it turned out he no longer

needed Louisiana. Enter stage left Thomas Jefferson's envoys, Robert Livingstone and James Monroe, who arrived in Paris in eighteen three, as they expected really difficult negotiations over New Orleans. Instead, Napoleon's foreign minister Tallyrand stunned them both would he asked the United States be interested in buying all of Louisiana.

The offer was astonishing. For fifteen million dollars, France would sell a territory of over eight hundred thousand square miles, a land that will soon become fifteen states in the United States. Napoleon's reasoning was simple and strategic. Quote to attempt obstinately to retain it Louisiana would be folly. I can scarcely say that I ceded to you, for you already have it. I know the value of Louisiana, and I have renounced it with the greatest regrets. But I

direct my attention to Europe. France requires money for war. Jefferson was elated, but a little uneasy the US Constitution, which he revered, didn't explicitly grant the president of the power to acquire new territory. As a strict constructionist, Jefferson had long argued that the federal government should do only what the Constitution expressly authorized. Purchasing an empire from a foreign power was certainly not among those enumerated powers. His

solution was pragmatic and political. He reasoned that the power to make treaties granted an Article to Section two, could encompass territorial acquisitions. Moreover, honestly, the opportunity was just too good to ignore. As he wrote privately, the less we say about constitutional difficulties the better. The Senate ratified the treaty anyway in October eighteen oh three, and the United States formally took possession of New Orleans and all of

Louisiana that same December. The Louisiana purchase doubled the size of the United States overnight. It gave the younger public control of the Mississippi River, vast fertile lands for agriculture, and the foundation for westward expansion. Jefferson, though still struggling with the constitutional implications, sought as securing quote an empire for liberty end quote For France, the sale marked the

end forever of its North American ambitions. Napoleon turned his gaze back to Europe, where he would soon crown himself emperor as we'll see, and plunge the continent into more than a decade of war. And for Haiti, the revolution that had set these events in motion came at a terrible cost, as we'll see, years of isolation, punitive debt, and racial fear that will ripple through the Atlantic world. It's really interesting to me, though, that the connection between

all these stories is so firmly soldered together. Without the Haitian Revolution Napoleon would not have abandoned his North American empire. Without Napoleon's need for money and the failure in the Caribbean, Jefferson never would have had the chance to get Louisiana. And that's why I think this is so important and shows the connection between events in these eras, because the Louisiana purchase didn't truly come to being in Washington or Paris.

It came into being in the cane fields of Sant de Man where enslaved people fought for freedom, and in doing some reshaped the map of the Western hemisphere.