Napoleon's Blunders
TORONTO — In my high school music appreciation class, we listened to Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture". We liked it, because there was stuff we could identify: Cannons boomed, bells rang, national anthems resounded and there was a satisfying uproar at the end.
The English -- being English -- have since produced a version performed by sheep and chickens. Generals screw up, their fiascoes get made into art and then the art gets made into fiascoes. Such is the march of progress.
We were told that Tchaikovsky's piece celebrated Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, but we weren't told who Napoleon was or what he was doing in Moscow in the first place. So, in case you had a similarly vague musical appreciation experience, here's the deep background.
Napoleon was a brilliant soldier who rose like a bubble during a time of unrest and bloodletting, won many battles and was thus able -- like Julius Caesar -- to grab near-absolute power. He got hold of Italy and Austria and Prussia and Spain. He replaced the French Republic with an emperor -- himself -- thus giving rise to much impressive furniture with eagles and columns on it. He also brought in a legal code, still somewhat admired today.
He had laudable motives, or so his spin-doctoring went: He wanted peace and justice and European unity. But he thought it would be liberating for other countries to have their stifling religious practices junked and their political systems replaced with one like his. To this end, he scrapped the kings of other countries and created new kings, who happened to be members of his own family.
Which brings me to Napoleon's two biggest mistakes. The first was Spain. Napoleon got Spain treacherously. He had an agreement whereby he could march through it on the way to Portugal, which was bothering him by interfering with his sanctions against trading with the British. Once his armies were in Spain he took the place over, whereupon his forces engaged in their usual practices of priest-pestering, church-looting and removing sparkly things and artworks to other locations for safekeeping.
Napoleon's big mistake was underestimating the religious feelings of the staunchly Roman Catholic Spanish. He thought they'd embrace "liberation," but it seems they had a curious attachment to their own beliefs. The British annoyed Napoleon in Spain by winning battles against him, but the real defeat of the French was brought about by widespread guerrilla resistance.
