3: FRENCH HISTORY FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE ESTABLISH MENT OF THE EMPIRE, 1796-1804. This period is one of the most important in the his tory of France, and from beginning to end its every event centres about one man, Napoleon Bonaparte. From the outset Napoleon was greatly hampered. There was much popular unrest, for the people had but recently emerged from a bloody revolution and were clamoring for they knew not what. The main foundations of democracy had been laid, but the funda mental principles of civil and religious liberty cherished by the French people, equality of rights and the sovereignty of the will of the people seemed as yet insecure; petty jealousies, conspiracies, plots and counterplots dominated politics. The government was internally weak and engaged in a struggle for its very exist ence; the directors, honest men enough, never were in harmony; suspicion and distrust of everybody and everything pervaded the atmos phere; the finances were in a disgraceful, con dition. The nation, weary of internecine war fare, sick of bloodshed, longed for permanent peace and a renewal of industrial and economic activities. But industry and commerce seemed dead, or at least in a hopeless state of stagna tion. Bankruptcy overwhelmed the bourgeoisie; the laws were unsatisfactory and, poor as they were, remained unenforced; the army, though re-enforced, following the Revolution, was in a very bad condition, ill-fed, poorly dad and lack ing a controlling hand; and relations with for eign nations were strained to such an extent that war threatened on every side. The ag gressive policy of an unstable government bade fair to lose to France the glory of her recent conquests. War seemed now to be the only means of replenishing an empty treasury and confirming the glory of the nation through the work of her military commanders. The first significant step in Napoleon's path toward power was the placing of the armies of France under his command and at his disposal. Thus the opportunity was within his grasp and the means provided whereby he could carry out his personal ambitions and, at the same time, promote the progress and wel fare of the entire nation. Possessed of great wealth, acquired by plunder, Napoleon was en abled to supply the directory with much needed funds and to bend the will of that body to his own ambitious ends. Peace-loving Frenchmen
grew to place fullest confidence in this irre sistible chief of the army. That this revivified military force and its ambitious commander should ever become a menace to the designs of the directory and of the citizens of France was not contemplated. Whether or not his love for the country or his commiseration for the pathetic state in which he found her were secondary in his mind to his personal aggran dizement matters little. It is certain that from that time the destiny of France was indissolubly linked with his rise and fall. Upon his success or failure depended the continuance of the French entity. His plans formed the institu tions of the country; his wars made French history and changed the face of the land. Aware that upon the applause of the nation rested largely the success of his ambitious projects, Napoleon endeavored to obtain the good will of the public and to then conform it to his wishes. Loving liberty, the French people yet gave enthusiastic support to a com mander who detested liberty for any but him self. Crying out for equality and fraternity they yet upheld a leader whose predominant thought was to impose his absolute will upon all others through every means at his command, and whose vision was that of absolute power. France and her conquests he used to further his own project. Yet he was not insensible to the ideals of the Convention and of the di rectory; on the contrary he was greatly in fluenced by them. His lust for conquest may partly be attributed, no doubt, to his desire for the glory of the republic and the success of her ideals. These invigorating ideals of nationality and democracy he carried with him into Italy, breathing life and purpose into the beginnings of that wonderful movement which culminated in the events of 1870 and the birth of the Italian nation. From that time his master mind and subtle genius and mighty hand were the most potent factors in raising France from the pit of anarchy and degradation to the heights of pride as the most powerful nation of the world; from that time his history was French history — Na poleon was France.