Napoleon Bonaparte: Crash Course European History #22

Hi I’m John Green and this is Crash Course European History.

So, the word revolution is a funny one, because it literally means a full turn of 360 degrees.

Like, you end a revolution where you started out.

But in history, revolution means radical change, stark departures from the world that was,

and the messy, often violent embrace of a new world.

The French Revolution was in different ways both kinds of Revolution--in the end, an absolutist

government was replaced by an absolutist government.

But the change that emerged from the Revolution was real and lasting.

It helped usher in a world where people saw themselves as citizens of a community rather

than subjects of a king.

And eventually, a rising military star named Napoleon Bonaparte would prove that having

your dad be king of France was not the only way to become ruler of France.

[Intro] Napoleon grew up poor in Corsica, but he loved

reading and managed to secure a scholarship to a military academy.

As a kid, he spoke Corsican and Italian and didn’t start learning French until he was

ten.

And he was bullied for his accented French and for his overall tininess--although despite

what you may have heard about Napoleon Complexes, Bonaparte would eventually end up being around

five feet seven inches tall, about average for an 18th century man.

He entered the army as a second lieutenant in 1785 and began to rise through the ranks

throughout the tumultuous years of the French Revolution.

By the time he was 24, in 1793, he was a brigadier general working under the Committee for Public

Safety, which as you’ll recall killed a lot of the public in the name of public safety.

And then in 1798, Napoleon crossed into Egypt with an entire army at his command, aiming

to disrupt Britain’s access to India.

In addition to lots of soldiers, Napoleon brought with him scientists, linguists, and

other scholars to advance knowledge and also carry off more Egyptian riches.

The Egyptians were impressed by the openness of these scholars, but in general the French

completely appalled the local people with their crude ways and drunkenness.

And even as Napoleon flattered the Egyptians by declaring himself a worshiper of Islam,

he ultimately stole and desecrated many Egyptian artefacts--although later he also stole and

desecrated lots of artefacts from around Europe.

He loved a plundered artefact!

At any rate, Napoleon ultimately had to return to France in 1799, as his army and navy were

defeated by the British and the Egyptians.

And that timing turned out to be perfect: The Directory, which you’ll recall, was

a five-person committee governing France after the collapse of Robespierre’s Committee

for Public Safety, was overseeing a still-floundering economy and fighting wars on many fronts.

Napoleon helped overthrow the directorate in 1799, and quickly became “First Consul,”

and then took as his first task mending fences with the Catholic Church.

He agreed to the Concordat of 1801, which recognized Catholicism as the primary French

religion.

It also validated the sale of Church lands and the state’s payment of clergymen’s

salaries if they swore to uphold the French government.

And that was important because it ensured him the support one of France’s most important

institutions, and you’ll recall our discussions about how even dictators need support from

within their holdings.

But it’s also telling that Napoleon would eventually be excommunicated by the Catholic