Exploring Napoleon and His Empire

Bonjour. Hi class. Dr. Dinka here with a review lecture for quiz four. Since the class materials for this week were a little bit more extensive and we had a lot of information, I wanted to have this review lecture for you so that you know what to focus on for quiz four. because I want you to be successful and earn a good grade in this class. Now, for this week, we focused on the age of Napoleon, the French Empire, and the connections we can establish between our text, France and its civilizing mission, and... the territorial expansion of France under Napoleon Bonaparte. Thank you also for your contributions to the discussion for this week. Some of you have commented on how important Napoleon's leadership was for the successful campaign that he had in Europe and for the battles that he led. And this is a quote from this mini biography by Napoleon when he mentioned that he said, if you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight like a lion. So it's just some important ideas that Napoleon lived by. Now, let's start with some of the information you have about Napoleon Bonaparte, and then we're going to talk about our theoretical text. So, it's important to know that Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, right here. It was part of Italy in 1768, and as the video mentioned, this became, was conquered by France, became part of France, and then at the age of nine, Napoleon, he enrolled in the French military school on a scholarship, and the video, the PBS video, the first one, talks about this, that Napoleon was teased because of his thick Corsican accent, because he was a short guy. and he earned the respect of his peers by working hard and becoming a brilliant military strategist. But this was later on, but at the beginning, the classmates made fun of him. He didn't feel welcome. So this had a lasting impact on him because he tried to overcompensate. He tried to prove himself to his peers. Next, we'll... Just chronologically, when he was 15, Napoleon was promoted to the Royal Academy in France, and this is when he excelled. And actually, during the French Revolution, he was seen as the savior of the revolution because, first of all, he won some important battles against the Austrians and the Prussians, and then he quickly became a general, saved the Directory. This was a... post-revolutionary government from royalists. So royalists were people who wanted to return a king to power, as you can recall, the reign of terror that followed the French Revolution. And a lot of people were disillusioned with Robespierre, with some of the tyranny that followed and some of the bloodshed. So you're thinking about how about we bring back. the monarchy but um as as this mentioned uh he was able to defeat the royalists and uh establish himself as a as a ruler so very interestingly um in 1804 napoleon crowns himself emperor um of the french empire and he also crowns his wife josephine empress as well not since the roman times have has been another emperor in Europe. So this was a very symbolic move that he was trying to take France in a new direction, trying to just give it a good image, especially after the chaos that ensued after the French Revolution. Next, something that's very interesting, his wife, Josephine, it's mentioned in one of the documentaries, was not comfortable living in the palaces of the former king and the former queen. And she was very humble. But again, some people criticized Napoleon and Josephine because they were actually seen as a monarchy in the same system that they were trying to defeat in the first place. So what did Napoleon accomplish? So restore the economic order, restore social order, restore religious order, and legal order as well. and would extend French power and dominate Europe. Now this is an image of what the Napoleon's empire, the French empire, looked like in 1810 under Napoleon's rule. So you can see the French empire here, and then the countries that were allied with Napoleon, as well as the countries that were controlled by Napoleon. Napoleon, such as Spain. It's very interesting because not only Napoleon was trying to control Spain, but also some of the territories in the New World in South America that Spain was having control over at the time. Something very interesting that I would like for you to remember about about Napoleon is that he extended the French Empire into Europe and he did it one battle at a time, one march at a time. His soldiers would march from morning until night, usually taking a break every four hours. They walked around 30 miles a day, and this is permissions from the second PBS documentary. So that's a lot of effort, a lot of... Of course, a lot of walking and a lot of just a lot of energy that was put into this. So people go for usually for a few miles. They walk a few miles a day. And I can imagine actually going for a 30 miles walk every day. So this is something to keep in mind. Now, let's continue with. The article, that's actually a book chapter by Vanessa Schwartz. That's from Modern France, A Very Short History. And this chapter is called French and a Civilizing Mission by Oxford University Press. And it's talking about the role that France has had worldwide, especially in relation to culture. So in particular. in regard to the French language. Since the Enlightenment, many proponents of France suggested that the French language had an innate clarity and rationality that made learning it an ideal unto itself. And quickly, French became the language of the aristocracy, not only in France, but in other countries in Europe as well. So, for example, by the 18th century, Russian aristocrats learned French from birth. taught by their governesses and where they learned Russian from servants. So in a way, French was their first language and we're talking about Russia. Something else that I'd like for you to take away from this reading was that in relation to language, we have all these famous French writers that disseminated the French language. into the world and writers in general enjoyed a special status in France and contributed to the importance of the French language in the world and during the old regime especially even under the former king Charles Perrault fantastic stories such as Puss in Boots Cinderella Little Red Riding Hood here and Sleeping Beauty established this genre of the writing fairy tale by introducing peasant tales to a reading public so it was actually Charles Perrault that published a collection of these folk stories that were later on republished. by the Green Brothers. And again, these were some of the same stories that were transmitted orally, such as the Little Red Riding Hood. For example, in 1812, the Brothers Green published the Captain, which is the chairman for this Little Red Riding Hood. So keep in mind some of these, some of these, the fairy tales that Charles Perrault helped made famous so um something else that's mentioned in this article it's very interesting is this international organization of the francophonie um and since 1987 uh the organization met every two years consists of about 56 members so it's it's very interesting that you have all these countries right we're talking about different countries uh and three associate members you 14 observers who constitute an international organization of the french-speaking world and um they consist of countries where french is native countries that have been colonized by france or belgium especially in africa and even very interestingly uh countries such as romania that have chosen affiliation uh so we're talking about in eastern europe romania um is a member of of this international organization of the Francophonie. And actually at the turn of the 19th century, Bucharest, the capital of Romania, was called the Little Paris. And this is a picture from a museum that they have from back in the day where they have some of those artifacts from what the clothing used to look like. All right, so one more thing about Organización Internacional de la Francophonie. The Francophonie also stands for cultural diversity through linguistic pluralism, and its adherence to France in the face of the growing dominance of the English language. So it's a counter-movement to the globalization and to the widespread use of... the English language. Now, in the last video, the short video that we had for this week, it's talking about the Hotel des Invalides, commonly called Les Invalides. It's a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, that's a region in Paris, that contains museums, monuments. Some of you very well noticed that also the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte that was made from melting those cannons that were used in the battle. So all of this was relating to the history of France. And very interestingly, it's also a hospital and an old soldier's retirement home. So all of these buildings are part of the Hôtel des Invalides. All right, so thank you so much for your attention. And if you have any questions, please let me know. I do check my email daily. If you need help with answering any of the questions from our discussions, please let me know. I am here to help you. For those questions that ask you for your opinion, if you don't have an opinion, you can skip that question. but it's the reason why we have those those questions is to make us think about how we can relate these readings and videos to broader issues that are going on in the world and also how can we apply how they can relate to our modern lives thank you very much and if you have any questions feel free to reach out. Au revoir, à bientôt, merci.

Bonjour. Hi class. Dr. Dinka here with a review lecture for quiz four.

Since the class materials for this week were a little bit more extensive and we had a lot of information, I wanted to have this review lecture for you so that you know what to focus on for quiz four. because I want you to be successful and earn a good grade in this class. Now, for this week, we focused on the age of Napoleon, the French Empire, and the connections we can establish between our text, France and its civilizing mission, and...

the territorial expansion of France under Napoleon Bonaparte. Thank you also for your contributions to the discussion for this week. Some of you have commented on how important Napoleon's leadership was for the successful campaign that he had in Europe and for the battles that he led. And this is a quote from this mini biography by Napoleon when he mentioned that he said, if you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight like a lion.

So it's just some important ideas that Napoleon lived by. Now, let's start with some of the information you have about Napoleon Bonaparte, and then we're going to talk about our theoretical text. So, it's important to know that Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, right here. It was part of Italy in 1768, and as the video mentioned, this became, was conquered by France, became part of France, and then at the age of nine, Napoleon, he enrolled in the French military school on a scholarship, and the video, the PBS video, the first one, talks about this, that Napoleon was teased because of his thick Corsican accent, because he was a short guy. and he earned the respect of his peers by working hard and becoming a brilliant military strategist.

But this was later on, but at the beginning, the classmates made fun of him. He didn't feel welcome. So this had a lasting impact on him because he tried to overcompensate.

He tried to prove himself to his peers. Next, we'll... Just chronologically, when he was 15, Napoleon was promoted to the Royal Academy in France, and this is when he excelled. And actually, during the French Revolution, he was seen as the savior of the revolution because, first of all, he won some important battles against the Austrians and the Prussians, and then he quickly became a general, saved the Directory.

This was a... post-revolutionary government from royalists. So royalists were people who wanted to return a king to power, as you can recall, the reign of terror that followed the French Revolution.

And a lot of people were disillusioned with Robespierre, with some of the tyranny that followed and some of the bloodshed. So you're thinking about how about we bring back. the monarchy but um as as this mentioned uh he was able to defeat the royalists and uh establish himself as a as a ruler so very interestingly um in 1804 napoleon crowns himself emperor um of the french empire and he also crowns his wife josephine empress as well not since the roman times have has been another emperor in Europe. So this was a very symbolic move that he was trying to take France in a new direction, trying to just give it a good image, especially after the chaos that ensued after the French Revolution. Next, something that's very interesting, his wife, Josephine, it's mentioned in one of the documentaries, was not comfortable living in the palaces of the former king and the former queen.

And she was very humble. But again, some people criticized Napoleon and Josephine because they were actually seen as a monarchy in the same system that they were trying to defeat in the first place. So what did Napoleon accomplish?

So restore the economic order, restore social order, restore religious order, and legal order as well. and would extend French power and dominate Europe. Now this is an image of what the Napoleon's empire, the French empire, looked like in 1810 under Napoleon's rule.

So you can see the French empire here, and then the countries that were allied with Napoleon, as well as the countries that were controlled by Napoleon. Napoleon, such as Spain. It's very interesting because not only Napoleon was trying to control Spain, but also some of the territories in the New World in South America that Spain was having control over at the time.

Something very interesting that I would like for you to remember about about Napoleon is that he extended the French Empire into Europe and he did it one battle at a time, one march at a time. His soldiers would march from morning until night, usually taking a break every four hours. They walked around 30 miles a day, and this is permissions from the second PBS documentary. So that's a lot of effort, a lot of... Of course, a lot of walking and a lot of just a lot of energy that was put into this.

So people go for usually for a few miles. They walk a few miles a day. And I can imagine actually going for a 30 miles walk every day.

So this is something to keep in mind. Now, let's continue with. The article, that's actually a book chapter by Vanessa Schwartz. That's from Modern France, A Very Short History.

And this chapter is called French and a Civilizing Mission by Oxford University Press. And it's talking about the role that France has had worldwide, especially in relation to culture. So in particular.

in regard to the French language. Since the Enlightenment, many proponents of France suggested that the French language had an innate clarity and rationality that made learning it an ideal unto itself. And quickly, French became the language of the aristocracy, not only in France, but in other countries in Europe as well.

So, for example, by the 18th century, Russian aristocrats learned French from birth. taught by their governesses and where they learned Russian from servants. So in a way, French was their first language and we're talking about Russia.

Something else that I'd like for you to take away from this reading was that in relation to language, we have all these famous French writers that disseminated the French language. into the world and writers in general enjoyed a special status in France and contributed to the importance of the French language in the world and during the old regime especially even under the former king Charles Perrault fantastic stories such as Puss in Boots Cinderella Little Red Riding Hood here and Sleeping Beauty established this genre of the writing fairy tale by introducing peasant tales to a reading public so it was actually Charles Perrault that published a collection of these folk stories that were later on republished. by the Green Brothers.

And again, these were some of the same stories that were transmitted orally, such as the Little Red Riding Hood. For example, in 1812, the Brothers Green published the Captain, which is the chairman for this Little Red Riding Hood. So keep in mind some of these, some of these, the fairy tales that Charles Perrault helped made famous so um something else that's mentioned in this article it's very interesting is this international organization of the francophonie um and since 1987 uh the organization met every two years consists of about 56 members so it's it's very interesting that you have all these countries right we're talking about different countries uh and three associate members you 14 observers who constitute an international organization of the french-speaking world and um they consist of countries where french is native countries that have been colonized by france or belgium especially in africa and even very interestingly uh countries such as romania that have chosen affiliation uh so we're talking about in eastern europe romania um is a member of of this international organization of the Francophonie. And actually at the turn of the 19th century, Bucharest, the capital of Romania, was called the Little Paris.

And this is a picture from a museum that they have from back in the day where they have some of those artifacts from what the clothing used to look like. All right, so one more thing about Organización Internacional de la Francophonie. The Francophonie also stands for cultural diversity through linguistic pluralism, and its adherence to France in the face of the growing dominance of the English language.

So it's a counter-movement to the globalization and to the widespread use of... the English language. Now, in the last video, the short video that we had for this week, it's talking about the Hotel des Invalides, commonly called Les Invalides. It's a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, that's a region in Paris, that contains museums, monuments. Some of you very well noticed that also the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte that was made from melting those cannons that were used in the battle.

So all of this was relating to the history of France. And very interestingly, it's also a hospital and an old soldier's retirement home. So all of these buildings are part of the Hôtel des Invalides.

All right, so thank you so much for your attention. And if you have any questions, please let me know. I do check my email daily.

If you need help with answering any of the questions from our discussions, please let me know. I am here to help you. For those questions that ask you for your opinion, if you don't have an opinion, you can skip that question.

but it's the reason why we have those those questions is to make us think about how we can relate these readings and videos to broader issues that are going on in the world and also how can we apply how they can relate to our modern lives thank you very much and if you have any questions feel free to reach out. Au revoir, à bientôt, merci.

Transcript for:Exploring Napoleon and His Empire

Transcript for:
Exploring Napoleon and His Empire