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

Church for annexing Papal lands for France.

Napoleon was also popular with the people: He offered a solution to decades of instability

and economic decline.

He won majorities when he had his candidacy for office and other decisions approved by

a plebiscite or vote, cast by men over the age of 21.

In 1802 he had himself declared Consul for Life and in 1804 Emperor.

Did the center of the world just open up?

Is there a bust of somebody who actually believes himself to be the center of the world in there?

It is!

It's Napoleon himself.

Stan got this in Paris.

I can tell, because it says, “Souvenier de Paris.”

So this bust of Napoleon complete with its armlessness and being cut off at the torso

and everything is extremely Roman-ish.

And this was part of how Napoleon justified his dictatorial form of government.

He said “no, we're just going back to the Roman Empire...to the good old days of

ancient Rome.”

And dictators do this a lot.

From the Russian word Tsar, which comes from the word Caesar, to 20th century dictators,

when your leaders start talking about reviving the glory of the Roman Empire, get nervous.

Oh look, its half-French, half-Roman Napoleon.

So, during the French Revolution, leaders promoted the ancient Roman idea of virtu—that

is, the sacrifice of personal interest for the good of the republic, the whole.

Napoleon continued all that Roman imagery but switched it from the Roman Republic to

the Roman Empire.

you can even see this in his journey from being a Consul to being an Emperor.

He was portrayed in lavish costume and crowned with the laurel leaves of a conquering hero.

“Empire” style in furniture arose and women donned slim white dresses, free from

corsets and voluminous petticoats, in imitation of Roman statuary.

And Napoleon saw himself as a modern Justinian--the famed ancient lawgiver.

So to that end, he set out to have the most celebrated jurists under his guidance produce

a rational code of laws.

Completed in 1804, the Code Napoléon (aka the Napoleonic Code) standardized the laws

of citizenship, family, and property.

The Code made rules for financial transfers and mortgages and for other legal transactions

concerning property standards across France instead of differing from province to province.

And legal standardization facilitated modern economic development.

But the other two sections on family and citizenship stunned many for the way they impoverished

and curtailed most of the rights of women.

Under the Napoleonic Code, women had no right to their own property once they were married--not

even the wages they earned themselves.

They could not serve as witnesses in court nor have control over or guardianship of their

own children.

They had to live where their husband directed them to live.

If they committed adultery, they were sent to jail.

But men, in contrast, would only be charged with a crime if they brought a sexual partner

into the family home.

I'm not making this up.

Lest you think that history is simply a march toward more people having more rights….not

always.

But by creating laws that specifically targeted the economy, the empire was seen as paving

the way for modernization.

And other institutions followed: individual schools were founded for higher education

in engineering, science and technology, and for developing a cadre of advanced teachers.

Napoleon also sponsored the creation of lycées, or high schools.

Countries in Europe and across the globe imitated the French legal and educational systems as

they too strove to become modern as well.

This may not seem like a huge deal, but consider how different the world becomes as more people

have access to more education: There are more potential innovators to solve

big problems, and more people who can use the tool of writing to share their perspectives

with wide audiences, and more teachers to train and educate future generations of professionals

and experts.

On the other hand, it's worth remembering that half of the population--women--were denied

not just most of the new opportunities in France but also many of the rights they'd

previously had.

So, Napoleon initially succeeded in France because he quelled the political chaos by

making himself an emblem of authority and order.

Right out of the dictator playbook.

He also created a police state with strict censorship and spies operating in everyday

life.

And he restored the monarchical system of aristocratic titles and hierarchies, even

giving back titles to some of the old aristocracy who could help revive the appearance of ceremonial

grandeur.

And so in all those ways, Napoleon was returning to Louis XIV's absolutism, so the revolution

did turn all the way around, ending where it started, in that sense.

While members of Napoleon's family often became wealthy and titled, his enemies were

frequently exiled from France.

The most famous of his exiled enemies was Germaine de Staël, the wealthiest woman in

Europe and one of the most accomplished.

De Staël never stopped criticizing the dictator, although at first she found him fascinating

and even thought she might become his companion.Early on, she probed him for an expression of admiration

of her talents by asking what kind of woman he valued most.

He responded, “the one with the most children” and pointedly gazed at her chest.

After that, she denounced his brutal nature to whoever would listen, rallying opponents

around her.

But Napoleon had as many plans for Europe as he had for France and he set out to conquer

and colonize all of Europe and the British Isles.

He amassed a huge army by drafting young men between the ages of 20 and 24, then he earned

their complete devotion by fighting alongside them in at least sixty battles.

As he conquered German and Austrian territory, he brought men from those areas into his armies

too.

And by 1806, he had ended the Holy Roman Empire after defeating Austria in several battles,

most thoroughly at the battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

Then he went on to defeat Prussia in 1806 and Russia in 1807 after they declared war

on France in succession.

Napoleon then forced or inspired reforms such as the end of serfdom, legislating religious

toleration, and creating schools to advance scientific and technological study.

And he unified German states excluding Austria in the Confederation of the Rhine.

His imposition of the Napoleonic Code, the metric system, and other institutions for

standardization helped to unify Europe.

What is the metric system? Stan says it's something that Europeans

do, like soccer and ensuring that all citizens have health care.

One of the big effects of Napoleon's European ambitions was that it inspired a lot of nationalism

among his new subjects, who mostly opposed his dictatorial regimes, in places where one

of his brothers usually.

I mean, for one thing, most of these newly conquered lands were run by one of Napoleon's

brothers, who'd serve as surrogate monarch, and if you're gonna live in a dictatorship,

you wanna at least be dictated by the dictator himself.

Not some brother.

It's like going to see the matinee of a big Broadway show, and instead of getting

the big star, you get some understudy. at any rate, this is important because people

began to think of themselves as, for instance, German in part because they didn't want

to think of themselves as French.

Napoleon's goal was to colonize the entire continent, and he mostly succeeded, but Spain

was still unconquered and thwarting his Continental system when in 1807 Napoleon struck with an

army of some 100,000 men.

Spanish and Portuguese royals both left their capitals.

Napoleon installed yet another brother (Joseph) as king and resistance swelled—with help