Okay. So, good morning. Today we finished the French Revolution trilogy. Um, so we are focusing on Napoleon today and my argument to you today is that Napoleon would not have been possible without ropes PR. Okay.
So, um to illustrate this point, let us do a thought experiment. I am going to present to you two individuals. Okay. And I want you to think about who is the greater genius, who is the uh more rare leader. Okay?
So let's look at person A. Person A has a perfect memory. That's the first characteristic. He is able to have instant recall. He or she is able to absorb all the information that comes his or her away and is able to retain it.
Okay. Second thing is the ability to have priorities. So what's rare among um really smart people is the capacity to prioritize what is important information and what is not important information to filter things out. Okay? Because once you have the important information, you are much uh more capable capable of making the correct decisions.
Right? The third thing is the strategic imagination. So a general is able to take all the relevant information that he or she has obtained and then imagine the battlefield across multiple nations. He or she is able to imagine how the battle will progress. And the fourth is the idea of flexibility.
So even though the general has a plan, he or she is still flexible during the battle. So if the battle is not going going according to plan then he or she he or she will make adjustments to the battlefield because he or she has total battlefield awareness. Okay. So these are the four characteristics of a great leader. Now let's look at B.
And B only does one thing. B is I promote the talented. That's all B does. That's all B cares about. Uh so who among these two individuals do you think is the more rare individual, the greater leader, the stronger genius?
A or B? Okay, so obviously it's a trick question. Okay, it's obviously B, right? And so what I'm going to do today is explain why it's B. Because A is Napoleon.
Napoleon, like Alexander the Great, like Julius Caesar is a genius of war. He's able to completely imagine the battlefield and come up with strategies that are shocking, innovative, and unique. That's Napoleon. B is rogues PR. All rogues PR cares about is promoting and rewarding those who are true and loyal to the revolution.
Okay. So I'm making I today I will make the argument that Rose Pier is the greater man than Napoleon. So um to illustrate this point, I want to ask you a question. Okay, let's just say that I'm a very rich man. Maybe I'm Jack Ma and I have a huge company.
I employ thousands of workers. Um, I'm extremely profitable. I have a son. He's 18 years old and he's expecting to inherit my company at 40, 50. Okay.
But I say to my son, I have a I sit I sit him down. I have a very long dinner conversation with him. I explain to him um son, it takes a particular type of person to run a great company. It takes dedication. It takes virtue.
It takes selflessness. You're a great person. I love you because you're my son, but you're not qualified to run my company. I have a team of experts who will replace me after I'm dead. I'm sorry, son, but you have to go do something else.
Okay? Because quite honestly, I don't think you would even enjoy running my company. Okay? So, that's a thought experiment. Right?
Now, let me ask you this question. China has 1 billion people. Would there be anyone in China who would think I'm a good father? No one. Okay, that's why B is hard because B requires a selflessness.
But not only that, but B requires the capacity to ignore social values and focus on what is good by itself. Okay, that's why B is harder than A. And and quite frankly, A in history, we'll meet a lot of individuals like that. Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, uh even today, um there are quite a few individuals like A. But B is rare.
All right. So, let me explain why B is so rare and why Rose Pier was fundamental to the birth of Napoleon. All right. So, we're going to focus on a battle and this is 1805. Ashelins.
This is considered Napoleon's greatest battle. Okay. The war the battle that made Napoleon into a legend. This is something called the war of the third coalition. So Napoleon, the French are up against three major nations, right?
The Austrians, the Russians, and the British. The Prussians will come out come in at some point to join the third coalition. So Napoleon needs to act first and knock out both Russia and Austria before the Prussians come in because Prussia is considered at this point the greatest military in the world. All right. So this is Oshelitz the battlefield.
Let me first give you um an overview of what the battlefield looks like. First of all, you have the coalition forces stationed on high ground. Okay, these are about 70,000 troops. Napoleon is scattered. Okay, he's got his forces here and he's got his forces here on the right.
This this is a right and these are his main forces. Okay, this is Napoleon and these he also has about 70,000 troops. So they look even but actually the coalition forces have a huge advantage. One because they're on high ground. Okay.
Second is that they are coming more forces are coming in from behind to to bolster the forces. All right. So it looks in the beginning like the coalition forces will overwhelm Napoleon. Okay. But and so what the uh the um coalition forces are going to do is this.
They see the right flank of Napoleon. It's weak. So what they will do is they will send a right attack and overwhelm the right and then come behind Napoleon. and then the other forces will come down to envelop um Napoleon. This this this is what we call a flanking um attack.
Okay. So that is the plan and quite honestly this is the most logical the most reasonable strategy given the circumstances. What they don't know is this Napoleon anticipates that they will do this. It's a trap actually. Okay.
Because what's going to happen is that as they come and attack, Napoleon will now attack the coalition's right flank. And as the coalition tries to muster the right flank, the cavalry will come in and split the coalition into two, forcing them to retreat. Okay, that is the master plan. The problem with this plan is the right flank. The right flank needs to hold against the coalition attack.
Otherwise, the coalition will just sweep in and um outflank Napoleon. Napoleon has this plan where coming in to um bolster the right flank is his marshall Davo with 10,000 men. Okay. The problem though is that Davo is 100 kilometers away. So, it has to be a really quick march to the right flank.
Okay. Now, if he misses, the coalition will just wipe out this army. But he does get here in time. He saves the right flank and then the rest of the plan goes exactly according to Napoleon's vision, his strategy. It is perfect.
Okay, perfect timing, uh, perfect attack. Everything is perfect. And as a result, this is exactly what happens. Napoleon splits the coalition into two. They're forced to retreat.
And then what will happen is that Napoleon will sweep in and capture this entire army. Okay? Once this happens, the war is over. The Russians and the Austrians are forced to retreat. The Austrians sue for peace.
The Russians go home. Okay? So this is considered one of the greatest battles in human history. It is up there with the great battles. This is considered the defining achievement of Napoleon.
And there are certain characteristics about this battle that make it uniquely Napoleon. Okay. The first is is total battlefield awareness. That's the first thing. He is able to imagine entire battlefield even before this battle starts.
He knows exactly where each unit will be. Okay. So total battlefield awareness is what makes Napoleon unique. What also makes Napoleon unique at this time is the idea of speed. This all happens very very fast.
Um at this time in Europe, battles are fought slowly and it's really like two forces banging against each other. Okay. But this is really fast and what you have is a lot of maneuverability. Okay. Okay.
Usually in the battlefield the army fights as one unit. What's amazing about Napoleon is he's able to divide his forces into different smaller armies that operate independently but as part of a larger vision. Okay. So Arcelitz is the defining achievement of Napoleon's grand strategy of war. And if you go to military college if you want to be a general you will have to study this war this battle in great detail.
All right. So the problem with this plan is that um it should not have worked. Okay, it is a reckless and stupid way to fight a battle because there are about 10,000 ring ways that that that could go wrong. Okay, first of all, you need this guy DVO to come in. He has to do about 110 kilometers in 48 hours.
This is this was this was before considered impossible. A really strong army, really disciplined, really well trained will do at most 20 kilometers in one day. Okay, think about that. This is the best army in the world. The Prussians will do 20 km in one day.
The VO is able to do 110 kilometers in two days. All right? And that just shows you how extremely disciplined the French are. Not only are they able to do 110 kilometers in 48 hours, but they come into the battlefield fresh for battle. Okay, they jump straight on the battle and they are pushing the coalition forces back.
So, it's an incredible achievement by Dvau. In fact, if you study um military history, you will see a lot of people argue that Dvau was the far superior general to Napoleon. Okay? because it takes a lot of skill to marshall your forces and organize them in a way that they will want to march that fast in that quick amount of time. Okay, so the first thing that must have happened is the VO had to come in time.
But you know what? There could have been rain, right? He could have gotten lost. An army could have come in and blocked his his advance, right? So 10,000 things could have gone wrong.
Napoleon was really lucky that these things didn't go wrong. Also in this in um this attack by the French, it was possible that the coalition could have overwhelmed an attack. Okay. So in other words, the thing about Napoleon that's really important is yes, his strategic genius is one thing, but what really matters is the officers under him. Okay.
He had a really talented bench of officers who were committed to the battle and they knew exactly what they had to do. Napoleon was the one with the vision. He was the one who had the courage and the bonus to attack. But it was they who executed the plan perfectly. All right?
And that's the defining characteristic of the grand army of Napoleon. All right? So let me explain to you how this happened. Okay. How was it that the French was able to build Europe's greatest army during the French Revolution.
All right. So let's compare the Prussians and the French. And the Prussians again are considered at this time in European history the greatest army ever. Right? So they are run by the nobility.
The officers, the generals are nobility and they are called the yunkers. This is very important. I want you guys to remember the the the term yners. Okay, they are the elite of part society. They're the ones who will take Germany into World War I and World War II.
Okay, they are the force behind Hitler and they are considered um the greatest warriors in European history at this time, the Yunkers. They are landed nobility. They have their land and so they can focus completely on warfare. And as time progresses, they become the greatest generals and officers of Europe at this time. Let's look at the soldiers.
The soldiers come from three sources. The first is conscription. Okay, conscription just means that you draft people um from your nation to join the war. Second is volunteers. Why do people volunteer?
Because you're often treated better in the military than you are um in a nation. If you are a soldier, the nobility can't beat the crap out of you for no reason. But if you're a peasant, the nobility can beat the crap out of you for no particular reason. Okay? And the third, which is the most controversial, are deserters.
So the Prussians have a nasty reputation for arresting people who they believe ran away from other armies like the French and British army and they are forced into the Persian army. It's like basically prison. Now the they have a nasty reputation because a lot of these desertters actually not deserters. They just happen to be people from neighboring nations that the Persians kidnap into their army. Okay.
So you have these three main sources. Now the thing that makes the Persian army unique in Europe is it actually has very strict requirements for joining the military. You have to be tall. Basically you have to be like 5'8. The average height was like 5'6 at this time in Europe.
Napoleon himself was 5'7. You have to be 5'8. Okay, so Napoleon would not have been able to join the Persian army. You have to be 5'8. It's the tallest army in the world.
The Persian king Feder the Great has has takes tremendous pride in how tall his warriors are. Okay. All right. So um this extremely disciplined army. But with this army comes three fundamental weaknesses.
Okay. The first is they cannot afford to lose that many men. Okay, these are these men are extremely well trained. They're extremely well disciplined. They cannot afford to lose that many soldiers in battle.
Okay, that's the first problem. Second problem is they're extremely slow. Why are they slow? Because um the officers like to live well. Okay.
So, so wherever they go, there's maybe like three or four different tra wagons that carry their food, carry their clothing, carry their servants. Okay. So, this is a very slow army, but it's fine because every other army in Europe is slow as well. Okay. Um, and so this creates an problem of inflexibility.
The Persians fight one way and that's the only way they fight. They basically move up front and because of the discipline of their soldiers, they overwhelm their enemy. They don't have that much flexibility in their army. Okay, so these are the three fundamental weaknesses of a Prussian army. They cannot afford casualties.
They're extremely slow and their strategy is inflexible, right? But it's not a problem because every army in Europe suffers from the same problems now comes the French Revolution. Okay. The French Revolution robes Pierre takes charge of organization and personnel hiring basically for the new French revolution army and he makes radical changes to the French military. The first is the idea of a meritocracy.
Okay. So before like every army most of the French army the officers and generals were of nobility that were appointed by the king. They were loyal to the king and as such roar saw them as a threat. Right? So he basically replaced the nobility with young men from the provinces who believed in a revolution.
So at the beginning of the revolution about 85% of all officers French were nobility. Five years later it's about 3%. That's a huge huge change. Okay. One of one of these men that that's recruited into the French military and promote very really fast is Napoleon.
Napoleon by the age of 25 is a general and that's unheard of at Europe at this time. But it's not just Napoleon. It's like dozens and dozens of really talented young men um who are given opportunities they would not have been given anywhere else. Also what's important for us to remember is that Napoleon himself is not French. He's Corsican.
Okay, he's a foreigner. But because of French Revolution, he's given these tremendous opportunities. Right? So that's that's the first thing. It's a meritocracy.
Second thing is it is total war. In other words, it is complete conscription. There are no volunteers. There are no desertters. It's everyone must now join the army.
Okay. So now France has almost this end supply of soldiers. And that gives the French three major advantages. The first is high casualties. They can actually afford now to lose a lot of men in battle.
So the French are now willing to take risks that other armies are not able to take. For example, ostelates, right? Oculus was a huge huge gamble that paid out for the French, but they're able to do so because able to replenish the forces if need be. Okay, high casualties. Second is the idea of mobility, speed.
All right, so now you don't have any you don't have any officers. Well, you can travel really fast. Also, your soldiers can just live off the land. You don't have to feed them like great food. They can just go and find berries or chickens to cook for themselves.
Okay? So, they are able to travel at least three times as fast as their enemies. That's an incredible advantage because even before their enemies are able to set up camp, the French have surrounded them and overwhelmed them. Okay, this happens a lot during these wars. So, speed is the crucial factor.
And the third advantage is flexibility. If you have an extremely dedicated army, what you're able to do is you're able to divide them into different units called corpse. Okay? Um this is no different from the Roman legion. Uh the Roman legion was the uh main tactic of the Roman army back in the old days.
Okay? So what you do is you take a huge army, you divide them into smaller armies, and if they're able to travel really fast, what this army is able to do is really quickly surround the enemy. Okay? If you surround the enemy, the enemy is dead. The the the biggest problem in war is being encircled because you've cut off their supply roots.
Um they don't know how how to respond to encirclement. Okay? So the French for many years was just destroying the enemies because of these three factors. They're able to take high casualties, their speed and their strategic flexibility in battle. Okay.
And who created the system? Ropes Pier created the system. Ropes Pier, not Napoleon. Ropes Pier. All right.
So, um, to give you an illustration of what the difference is, let's go to the year 1806. Okay. So, the French have destroyed the Austrians. The Russians are in retreat. The Prussians come to battle now.
Okay. and and all of Europe is like, "Oh, wow. The Prussians now have taken the battlefield. The Prussians are going to overwhelm the French because the French are just peasant recruits. The Prussians are tall.
They're strong. They're fearless. They're going to destroy the French." Okay. So, the for the first time since the revolution, the Prussians and the French meet in 1806. Okay.
Um it is a total and utter annalation. Okay. Never before has Europe seen this. the French in 30 days wipes out the entire Persian army. It is incredible to watch.
Also, there's a very famous battle during this time where Dvau um he's a court leader and he gets lost and he ends up fighting the entire Prussian army. Okay, you you know about this battle, right? Um and he's out number two to one. He wins the battle. DVO is able to win uh out number two to one against the main Prussian army led by the king himself.
Okay. So this is a radical revolution in military affairs. The French by using the system is able to dominate Europe for uh most of Napoleon's reign. Okay. But but and what this does is and this is really important is this because the French are dominating the battlefield it forces the other European powers to make fundamental changes to society because the French of the French revolution these sides are forced to become more liberal and democratic and open and progressive in order to defeat Napoleon.
So after 1806 the pressure to make a lot of major changes to society. Okay. What they recognize is that our soldiers aren't enough. We need to change the fabric and structure of our society if we are to defeat Napoleon. Okay.
So um they make two major changes there. There's other changes but there are two major changes that that is fundamental. The first is they abolish surfom. Okay. Surfdom.
Surfdom is basically like slavery where the peasants are tied to the land and that's the majority of people. When you abolish surfom the advantage of that is now you can have more conscription. these prices are now able to come and become soldiers because serves are not allowed to be soldiers. Okay? So now your army the numbers have increased and so all the armies at this time Europe are increasing because they're allowing more people to join the military.
Okay. And the second which is most important is the middle class. So uh before the French revolution all Europe was extremely structured stratified society. They're really at the top but because of Napoleon's victories the Prussians allow the middle class to join the civil service. That's fundamental.
Okay. They are now activating the energy of the middle class and this allows for innovation. It allows for um more e economic activity. And so 1806 even though the presence are destroyed, it allows them to build a structures that will allow them to dominate all of Europe in about you know 50 60 years time and eventually they'll become the dominant power in Europe and the world basically uh before the beginning of World War I. And this was all possible because the Prussians lost to the French and they learned lessons from the French Revolution.
Okay, that's why I keep on saying the French Revolution was a turning point in uh human civilization. Okay, so that is my main argument. Um are any questions about this argument confused about the can join the army. Okay. So, surfom.
Okay. All right. So, the idea the institution of surfom it's basically slavery where peasants are tied to the land. They cannot leave the land. And this is important because again most of these societies are agricultural based.
So you need people actually to work the land. And as such your the majority of your population is not eligible for the military. Okay, that does that make sense? when you eliminate surfom now every man is eligible for the military and as such you can um replenish your forces and a lot of men want to join the military because it's a lot better to be a soldier than to be a peasant right as a soldier you h you you are um given rights by the military okay because the military is a very powerful institution if you're a soldier you can't be bullied around by anyone whereas where whereas if you're a peasant you're a surfer you you I you you're like an animal. Okay?
So if if you give people a choice whether to join the military or be a surf, they would choose to be a soldier even though there's a risk of death. Okay? But with a soldier comes a possibility of social mobility and social respect which is not available to you if you are a surf. Okay, does that make sense? Great.
I had a question. Um the so like earlier on in the in the French Revolution there there were wars against Prussia that the the French also won and one of the reasons for that that often come up is that they had like it was ideological reasons that the the French at that time were the spirit of the French that's right the ideology of it nationalism all that kind of stuff right um you move up 15 years into the Napoleonic period. Are those ideals of the French Revolution still part of the army or was it more of like a a speed of co like we're just a bunch of young men moving up in the world and this is our new identity as imperial? Yeah. Okay, that's a great question.
Okay, so the beginning of the revolution these revolutionaries were compelled by re a sort of a religious fever to die for the nation. Okay. And Rose Pierre became the role model because Rosier sacrificed himself uh for uh for for France. Um but in 1804 what happens is Napoleon becomes emperor. And once he becomes emperor, everything changes because now you're not you're no longer fighting for your nation, you're fighting for your emperor.
And there are a lot of French people who felt betrayed by Napoleon. So after 1804, this is really important. France is still the greatest military in the world, but it's basically a military cabapow, a military cabal, okay, who run France. Uh Napoleon is just the head of a group of generals who love war, who benefit from war. Um and um as such, France becomes a military nation where everyone's supporting the French um um military adventurism.
Okay? And even though the French do win a lot of wars, eventually because you're an empire, you just exhaust everyone. Okay. But but but I will discuss this during the PPT. Okay.
All right. So, thank thank you. All right. Any more questions before I go into the uh PPT? Okay.
All right. So, one last point is why is Rose Pierre creating a meritocracy? Okay. The reason why he's creating a meritocracy is remember he's trying to create a new society and there are a lot of threats to this new society. Obviously the major threat is these foreign armies like the Prussians, the Austrians, uh the Spanish who want to restore the Burban monarchy.
That's a major threat. Then you have these rebels uh these peasants who want to restore the the privileges of the Catholic Church. That's also another major threat. But the main threat is actually the army itself, right? Because remember 85% of the army is nobility.
And there were actually a few c few times when the army wanted to march against the revolution and restore the monarchy and the generals didn't do that even though they wanted to because they were afraid that the soldiers would mutiny against them. Okay. Okay. So this was a huge problem for Robespier and that's why Robespier um spearheaded the movement to replace no nobles with ordinary men like Napoleon which gave Napoleon opportunity to rise among uh to rise within the ranks. Okay.
Does that make sense? That's the logic of the revolution. All right. All right. So um let us now go into the details of this now that we've done an overview.
Right. So sorry. All right. So the question we were looking at today is how did a nobody Okay. And this guy l literally was a nobody.
He was from a from an island called Corsica which was not even French. He was part of the French Empire but it's not actually French. Um he grew up speaking French but in a very bad accent. Okay. So people made fun of him in school.
His family was local nobility in Corsica but they were poor. Okay. So this guy was literally a nobody and in only like I don't know like a decade he became emperor of France the French empire which at that time was the um main power in Europe. So how is this possible? How did the nobody Napoleon become emperor of French?
Okay. So for us to understand this remember what the French revolution was. These three classes we look at very closely at the French Revolution and my argument to you is it was a religious crusade. Okay, this the the the irony of course is the French Revolution was trying to re remove religion from social life. Okay, but if you look at what actually happened to the French Revolution, it was the ultimate religious crusade where the people were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to build a new society based entirely on reason.
Their new god was reason. Okay. Um, another idea I want you to remember is that mythologies are prophecies and prophecies are plans of action. Okay. So, embedded in your subconscious are the mythologies of society.
Um, in France at this time these mythologies included the stories of Jesus but also the stories of Exom the Great and Julius Caesar. Napoleon saw himself as the reincarnation of both Exod the Great and Julius Caesar and he wanted to create a mythology that he was in fact the Messiah. Okay, so these mythologies are there and Napoleon saw this as an opportunity in order for him to amass power for himself. That was his main insight. Okay, he was not a great general.
That is one of the major mis misconceptions out there. He was not a great general who was not as good as Davo was. But he understood that the underlying framework for society are mythologies. If you can control these mythologies, you can control people. You can become the emperor.
Okay? That was his major uh revelation. All right. So three things to remember. Mythologies are part of the collective subconscious.
Okay. We are all in society um governed by the mythology that we share together. That's the first idea. Second idea is that when collective subcon sorry when collective consciousness authority breaks down these mythologies begin to drive history. So when you remove your teachers it doesn't mean no one's in charge.
It just means that now these mythologies are in charge. Okay. So think of the cultural revolution in China. You could remove these authority figures but then your subconscious takes charge. And the third idea is certain individuals will act out the leading roles in these mythologies and capture the imagination attention of everyone else.
Okay, that's why Napoleon became emperor because he saw that the French were looking for a messiah. And he and he's like I will become your messiah. And he did that by acting it out by pretending to be ex the great but pretending to be Julius Caesar. Okay? And I I'll show you how later on.
Okay? So that's a main idea we're looking at today. All right? And Napoleon himself said this. Okay, this is a very famous quote that he said uh while he was in exile in St.
Helena. Okay, so he's basically writing his memoirs. He's reflecting on his life and he's not that perceptive. He's not that bright. But in this quote, we see his plan his like like how he became emperor.
Okay, let's let's read this. I saw the way to achieve all my dreams. I would found a religion, right? He's not like I'm not a general. I am a religious leader.
I saw myself marching into Asia mounted on an elephant a turban on my head that is actually the great that's as Caesar okay and in my hand a new Quran that I would have composed to suit my needs a Quran a Bible okay so that's what he saw so he understood what the French revolution really was it was a crusade to bring reason into the world and he would become the Muhammad the Julius Caesar that's the great the Jesus that would achieve this crusade Okay, does that make sense? He understood this from the beginning and that's why he was able to succeed. Whereas Rose Pier um he may have understood this but he refused to act out that role. Right? All right.
So even even in his beginning the beginning of his career he was focused on creating mythology of himself. This is this is when he was first a general and was part of the Italian campaign. And this is a mythology of him leading his warriors into battle. Okay, this didn't really happen this way. Doesn't matter because he understood that what matters is how people perceive you.
The reality the underlying reality doesn't really matter. So when he was emperor, he was focus focusing on a cult of personality. Okay, paintings of himself, stories of himself that would um become the official history. So a lot of stuff that we know about Napoleon his victories we have to be suspicious about. Okay.
Because he was so focused on creating a myth of himself. Okay. All right. So um let's go over some details that we discussed. All right.
So um when Lu 16 was in charge the French army had a lot of problems. The first problem was you had too many generals. 5 5678 generals, 480,000 men. That's a lot of generals. Okay?
And the reason why they had these generals is they were friends of the king. They weren't competent. They weren't necessary, but the king liked them and so the king promoted them, right? It was a way to ensure the nobility was loyal to you. But that made for a topheavy um bureaucracy that didn't allow for innovation and change.
Okay, so that's the first problem. Second problem is 85% are nobles, harsh discipline. Um soldiers didn't want to fight, they were forced to fight. No conscription, volunteer army, basically deserters. One-third would desert every year.
Okay? One-third of soldiers run would run away every year. So this so that's why this army is problematic. Okay? And that's why the Prussians, the English would defeat the French in many battles before the revolution.
All right? So this man is named uh Carno and he is actually a friend of Rose Piers. They were they became friends when Ropes Pier um was in his provincial town of Ays. They they've known each other for like a long long time. And when Rose Pier became prominent in the revolution he asked his friend Carnau to come up with a new system of reorganizing the military.
And Carno came he's a ma mathematician, a scientist. He came up with the idea of conscription. Let's call it le and math. So let's get everyone to join the military so as to dilute the influence of nobility. And it works spectacularly well.
And because he he's a mathematician, he was extremely well organized. Okay. He is one of the main conspirators against ropes pier um because he when he amassed power he recognized that he couldn't really benefit from his power. Rose Pierre was too virtuous. He demanded on everyone making sacrifices.
And so these people that Rose Pierre promoted that um Rose Pierre favored would eventually conspire against him. Okay. And one of these men is Carno. And Carno is is also important because Carnau would make Napoleon a general. Okay.
So the thing about Napoleon that makes him distinctive in the military is he's very good at um um coming close with political patrons. Okay? He's very good at identifying political patrons and getting them to help him in his career. All right. So as you can see because of conscription the French army is increasing and that forces the other armies of Europe to increase as well.
Okay. So you can see the spike um during this time because all of all these reforms military many young great generals are emerging in the French military. So Napoleon is the most famous but there are others who are actually just as good even better than Napoleon. Okay, dozens of them and they these generals will become the core of the French military. All right.
And all of them are driven by a republican idealism. Okay? They want French become a republic. They want French to be France to be free. They want to spread the revolution all across the world.
Not not not only are they um devoted and idealistic, but also their soldiers. The soldiers are willing to die in battle, whereas the others are whereas other nations are not. Okay. Um the VO we talked about. Okay.
Without the VO, there's no way Napoleon could have won his battles. The VO is probably the greatest general at this time. Um, so Carno makes Napoleon a general. And why is Napoleon given the general ship? Because Napoleon does the um Carno a favor.
So after Ropes's death, a director is set up to be basically be the dictatorship of France. Okay. a fiveman dict dictatorship which includes Carnau and um also Paul Barah who is also another patron of Napoleon as well as a friend of Robespier. Okay. And at first after Robes Pier's downfall both Paul Beret and Napoleon are under investigation because they are friends of Ropes Pier but because they are extremely political politically flexible.
I mean he he is the opposite of Ropes Pier. ropes pier um was virtuous. He's very cynical. Okay, he he's he's your perfect political operator. Okay, he's able to become one of the leaders of the directory and he helps promote Napoleon's career.
Napoleon helps them because at this time there's a mob, a Paris mob that threatens the directory. Okay? And what Napoleon does is he fires cannon at them. Okay? And as a general, you're not supposed to do that.
You're not supposed to like actually go kill your own people. But Napoleon, he is ambitious. He's merciless and he show so the director owes him a favor and he asks for a generalship of the Italian peninsula. Why? Because that's where Julius Caesar is from.
Right. And in the Italian peninsula um he wins a lot of battles. Um the the the the record is mixed. It's not as great as people make it out to be. Okay.
But after the Italian peninsula, what's interesting is he then goes to Egypt. Why? Because the great went to Egypt and Julius Caesar went to Egypt. Okay. So even at this particular stage in his career, he understands how to create a mythology of himself.
Right? I am the new Julius Caesar. I'm the new ex. And it works. Okay?
Because in 1799, Paul Baro Bar as well as um Annayas who is now the head of the government, they get sick of the republic. The republic, it's corrupt. It's ineffectual. They want to establish their own dictatorship. But for them to establish their their dictatorship, they need a general to help them out.
Okay? So they need the army on their side and they go to different individuals. They go to first general Maro who is right now considered the best general in uh France. He's the most respected. If Maro were to side with them, they would have no issues with their coup d'eta.
But Maro, he's a staunch Republican. He refuses. He's like, "No, this goes against the revolution. This goes against the legacy of Ros Pier. I refuse to join in your coup d'eta.
So then they go to McDonald. Okay m at this point McDonald is like I don't want to do this but have you talked to Napoleon? Okay. And so they go talk to Napoleon. Of course Napoleon wants to do this.
Napoleon's been dreaming about this. He wants to be the new Caesar who crosses the Rubicon and ends the Roman Republic. Okay. And so what happens is Napoleon launches a coup d'eta in Paris. And at this point the great fear is the mob of Paris will rise up against Napoleon.
But they don't because Napoleon has done such a great job of creating mythology of himself as a messiah. Right now at this point after the death of Rosepierre, people are looking for a messiah. So Napoleon gets away with it. And then what he does is he knows that now that he's dictator he needs to fulfill people's mythology of of of him as Messiah. So rather than just sit sit and enjoy being emperor he decides to go to Italy again.
Okay. So the first thing he does which is really interesting is he crosses the Alps. He crossed the Alps. Why? Because Hannibal crossed the Alps.
Okay. And during in Italy he makes a lot of really stupid decisions. Okay. So for example um he had the Austrian army encircled. Okay.
So he had different forces surrounding the Austrian army. And what Napoleon was afraid of is the Austrian army would run away. But if you're a general in the Austrian army, you recognize that the French are divided, right? So I just I just bulldoze them. Okay.
So the Austrians launch this massive attack against the French and the French are now being overwhelmed. But the but the French have incredible discipline. So they hold the line but they're still being overwhelmed because outnumbered. Okay. Napoleon comes in with his elite group with his elite soldiers.
And the elite soldiers hold their line but 50% of them are killed. And so now the Austrians are just bulldozing the French. Right. Napoleon is saved because another French army is able to come in and save them. Okay.
So Napoleon is taking all these stupid risk uh for no particular reason and has all to create a mythology of himself as this great conqueror because what he recognizes is I don't have to win this battle because I control the government. When I'm when I go back to France, I'll just tell everyone I won and everyone will believe me. But what's important is action. Okay, I need action in order to create mythology. All right.
So after the Satan campaign, what he does next is um create a legend of himself as a new messiah who will lead the French people into the promised land. Okay. Um this is the battle of Moringo where Napoleon should have been destroyed but he got lucky again and in 1804 he makes himself emperor of France. And this now destroys the revolution because the Messiah is not supposed to do this. Messiah is not supposed to make himself emperor.
The Messiah is supposed to be selfless like Rose Pierre and lead the people to victory to free the entire world. You're not supposed to become emperor. Okay? Because once you become emperor, you have worldly needs. He makes now his brothers emperors as well.
He makes his brother Joseph emperor of Italy as well as Spain. Okay. He then makes his other other brother. So this is Joseph. Um he then makes his other brother Lewis king of Holland.
Okay. So he's basically divide all of Europe among his family members. And obviously if you are a French revolutionary who dedicate your entire life to promoting uh liberty around the world, you don't see this as a good thing. Right? All right.
So the other thing about um Napoleon is he was extremely selfish individual. He was narcissistic. He was he was selfish. And the reason why we know this is one thing that he spent a lot of time on is writing letters to his wife the empress Josephine. Okay.
So let's just leave let's just read certain sections of these letters. So he writes to Josephine. Since I left you, okay, he's he's in campaign right now in Italy. I have been constantly depressed. My happiness is to be a near you.
Okay. Okay, so he's obsessed with Josephine. Okay, he's he's a general. He's in charge of tens of thousands of soldiers, but every day he's thinking about, hey, is Josephine sleeping with another man? That's like literally what he's thinking.
He's like, I know Josephine sleeping with another man, and I'm going to I'm going to be really angry when I find out. Okay, that that's what he's thinking every day. And we know because I don't love you anymore. On the contrary, I detest you. You are a vow mean BC All right.
So, this is this is what he's writing to his wife who's sleeping with other men while he's away on campaign. Also, my mistresses do not in the least engage my feelings. Power is my mistress. So, this is a megalomaniac. He's narcissistic.
He's obsessed with obtaining with obtaining as much power as possible. That's what drives him. What he recognizes is this. in order for him to maintain his mythology, in order for him to maintain his image as a messiah, he France needs to be constantly at war. So even though um Napoleon could at this time just enjoy being emperor, instead he's constantly at war with everyone in order to u maintain his mythology because the mythology is what controls the French people.
If you don't have the myth mythology, they won't let you become emperor anymore. Okay. And so as a result, France becomes the largest empire in Europe. Okay. So the blue, the light blue, it's all part of the French empire.
He's controlled France, but he controls Spain, Italy, um parts of Prussia, Germany. Okay? And the problem with Europe is, as I mentioned in previous classes, the geography. It's very hard to control all of it. So Britain is still impossible to conquer right now.
Britain has the greatest navy in the world. France has the greatest land army in the world. But Great Britain has the greatest navy in the world. And therefore they can never be invaded. Okay.
Russia is just too big to be invaded. There's still Austria around. Um and so now the French army, it is overextended and people have lost their revolutionary fever. Okay? They're not going they don't want to die anymore for Napoleon.
So now the French army, they're fighting all these battles. They're losing a lot of men and they and and these men are being replaced with just common people who don't really care about fighting. Okay. So now the French army is in decline. Um the turning point of course is in the year 1812 and that's that's the year when um Napoleon decides to invade Russia.
And even though um the invasion is a failure, he's still able to escape. The problem though is that in Russia, he's lost his calvary. He know he he no longer has calvary in battle. Okay? So that's a huge disadvantage.
Also his soldiers soldiers are fighting a guerilla warfare in Spain because what's happened is because of Napoleon's conquest, nationalism is on the rise. Before people fought against Napoleon in order to restore the French monarchy in order to stop the revolution. Now people are fighting against Napoleon in order to secure their national independence from the French. Okay? In order to practice religion in order to protect their national values.
And so the Spanish rise against the French, Napoleon, but also the Germans as well. So now Napoleon is way overextended and he no longer has the military that he once had um during the revolution. Okay. All right. So um eventually Napoleon is defeated.
Um this is called the Congress of Vienna and it will lead to something called the con of Europe. And this um piece is being mastered around by a man named Men Menick. Okay. And Menake argues for balance of power. Let's just maintain our borders and let's no longer fight any more wars because the because Napoleon his wars killed millions of people.
We are sick and tired of war. The people are sick and tired of war. That's why Napoleon was defeated because people wanted peace. Now um so this concept of Europe this peace agreement and we can think of this as actually like a proto United Nations okay an organization dedicated to maintaining balance of power in Europe it works extremely well the uh Napoleon 1815 at the battle of water and after that there's no more wars in Europe okay until maybe 1856 during the Korean war okay that's like 40 50 years so it's an incredibly successful formula. The problem though is this.
If you don't let people fight wars, what are they going to do? They're going to revolt against you. Okay? So, because of inequality, you have all this massive tension in society. So, your options are either you take people to war and kill off a lot of people or these people will rise up against you.
Okay? And that's what happened in 1848 during the revolutions when all of Europe was engulfed in revolutions. We will study this later on. Okay? But I I want you to remember this idea.
1815 the Congress of Vienna Congress of Europe. Minneck establishes world sorry establishes uh peace in Europe. Okay. And they think this is a great thing. But then you have the revolutions of 1848 which threaten and destroy a lot of these monarchies.
And so after that what happens? Well you now have you have continue continue continuous wars. Okay. All right. So that's the so that's what the um people that's that's what the elite of Europe discovered because of the French Revolution.
You can either have your soldiers go to war or they will revolt against you. That's your choice. All right. And that's and and so this will take us into World War I and the 20th century. Okay.
So um the peace of Europe is one of the major legacies of the u revolution. But as I mentioned another major legacy that we must not um forget is the increase of liberalism in Europe at this time. Okay. There are c there are many nations that stop to adopt that start to adopt French revolution principles. Okay.
But there are nations who are forced to adopt French revolution principles like Prussia because they have no choice if they're fight. There are other nations like Austria which will adopt these principles later on. Okay. So even though Napoleon will kill the French Revolution and Napoleon himself will be defeated by the Europeans, um the French Revolution marks a radical turning point in history. Okay, French Revolution marks the beginning of liberalism, modernity, uh humanism, a lot of great things that now define our modern world.
Okay, we would not be living in the world that we live in today because sorry, we would not be living in the world we live in today without the French Revolution. Okay, it is probably the most significant event in uh human history. All right, so let me conclude now by talking about these great figures that have emerged in human history and compare them. Okay, so as I mentioned at the beginning of the class without Rose Pier Napoleon would not have been possible, right? So this chart shows us how you compare Rose Pier and Napoleon.
Rose Pier obtained his power through virtue and dedication. He worked 18 hours a day. He was completely dedicated to the revolution. He had no girlfriend. He had no money.
He was not being paid for his work. All he was doing was to ensure the revolution would succeed. And because of of his dedication and virtue, the revolution was was saved and it succeeded. Okay. So rose pier the French revolution would not have been possible.
Um he was a prophet of reason. He believed that everyone had the capacity to reason. So if you present the our logical argument, people would understand it. Okay. And that was both the source of his virtue, but it was also the source of his downfall because he he could not imagine that his friends would conspire against him because they wanted to protect their own self-interest.
Okay. And the third thing about Rose Pierre that's important is he saved the French Revolution. Now, let's compare him with Napoleon. Okay. Who's complete opposite?
Napoleon got to where he was because of political maneuvering. He was able to identify um political patrons early in his career and he did whatever they asked of him and then together they launched a coup d'eta against the French Republic and after keta succeeded he betrayed his political allies he amassed power for himself that's how he became emperor okay so Napoleon he's a great politician we think of him we think of him as a general but he's really a politician um the thing about Napoleon that made him so successful is his mythmaking genius. He understood that people are looking for myths and he knew how to present himself as a mythic figure like the Messiah. Okay? And as a result, he destroyed the French Republic.
Now, what's interesting is that if you look at human history, figures like Napoleon appear always at the end of a republic. Okay? So, the French, so Napoleon killed the French Republic, but they have Julius Caesar who is of the same personality. Okay? Julius Caesar was able to identify political patrons very early on and outmaneuver them as a mass power.
Julius Caesar was focused on creating a myth of himself as this unbeatable general and as a result he destroyed the Roman Republic. Later on we will study Hitler. Guess what guys? Hitler Hitler follows the same pattern. All right.
Hitler was able to amass power because he outmaneuvered his local patrons and allies. We will we will study this. Okay. Remember the Nazis came did not come out of nowhere. The Nazis were a force incubated by the German army in order to destroy the communist movement.
Okay? And Hitler took advantage of this. Hitler got to where he was because he created a myth of himself as a savior of the German people. Right? And then he destroyed the Roman Republic.
Okay? Why is this important? Because it's entirely possible we are living at another inflection point in history where the American Republic may be destroyed. Trump. Okay.
How did Trump get get to where he is? Poker maneuvering. Why? Why? Why is he president?
Because he has a mythmaking genius. Okay, that's really important to understand about Trump. Everyone's like, Trump is a terrible business person. He's lost a lot of money. Trump doesn't understand terrorists.
He doesn't understand economy. He doesn't care. He He understands mythology. Okay? He understands how to capture people's attention.
He knows how to instill an image of himself as Messiah in people's minds. That's what he cares about, right? He doesn't need to succeed. He needs to he needs to act and then he needs to present himself in a way that captures people's imagination. What does Trump spend all his time on?
He spends all his time talking to the press. That's his job. Okay, do you understand? His job is not to think about economics or military matters. his job is to talk to the press and create an image of himself as a messiah to the American people.
Okay. So the question then is okay well listen if we see this pattern Napoleon Caesar Hitler are the same person the results are the same and Trump is similar to Napoleon Caesar and Hitler what's going to happen I don't know okay right but okay and this is really important if in fact in the next 10 years and it will probably take 10 years if Trump actually destroys the American republic okay then a pattern pattern emerges in history. All right? And if this pattern is consistent, now we're able to control history because we're able to foresee and predict history. Okay?
So, that's the idea. Okay, that's that's it. Any questions? What was this clear to you guys? All right, good.
about Rose Pier Rose being so ob okay that's a great question okay why did Napoleon succeed where Rose Pier failed okay okay I I so the difference is this if I'm Rose Pier I believe everyone's capable of reason right therefore you have a responsibility to reason for yourself you understand I will give you ideas but you must come to your own conclusions you must act independently of me. Okay. And Napoleon's like, "No, no, no. People don't want to think. People want to believe.
People want to obey. If I present myself as Messiah and I tell people, follow me and I will lead you to paradise. People want to follow me." Okay? And and and people love this confidence, right? This charisma, this confidence of Napoleon.
Think of Trump, right? May maybe you and I think Trump's an idiot. But if you're a normal person, you believe that Trump, he is a genius because he's so confident, right? People are attracted to confidence. Does that make sense?
People aren't attracted to logic or reason. They're attracted to confidence and charisma. Trump tells everyone, "Follow me and the world will be fine. We will make America great again." And you know, you're like, "Well, that doesn't make any sense." doesn't matter. Okay, he's trying to he's what Trump has done is create a mythology that has captured people's imagination and as such people are willing to die for this.
Does that make sense? That's what made Napoleon such a great military leader because he had this confidence and people just have to follow him. Okay, does that make sense? Okay, great question. Any more questions?
I don't understand how like how Trump is myth. What's his Okay, mythmaking. Okay, myth. Mythmaking is all right. There's reality.
Okay, why is Trump a mythmaking genius? Okay, there's reality, right? This these are things that you and I um see every day. And then there's these myths. These are ideas that we have about how society works, okay?
About how the world works. Now al differently speaking Trump is a failed business person. His father was a great business person Fred Trump who built a real estate empire and then Trump came along and took this empire over and he almost bankrupted this empire. Okay. And so Fred Trump was spending a lot a lot of his time thinking about how to make money like how do I make a great business?
How do I hire good people? How do I motivate them? How do I steal more money from the government? Okay, so he was focused on the very specifics of running a business. Trump is like, no, people don't want that.
People wanted to see a successful billionaire. Okay, and what's a successful billionaire? He sleeps with beautiful woman, right? I'm going to find beautiful woman and I'm going to sleep with them. And the press is reported and then people were like, "Oh my god, this guy is a god." because all these beautiful woman want to sleep with him.
Therefore, I should give him my money to spend to invest because he's a genius. Okay. What what people want is mythology of success. That doesn't make sense. So, what made Trump actually really famous is is a show called The Apprentice.
The Apprentice, it's a TV show. It's made up and and and the show presents Trump as this extremely wise and forward-looking business person. And he's the opposite in reality. Okay. But what Trump understands, this is really important, is people don't care about reality.
People want to watch a TV show that's exciting, that's interesting, that's fun. So if I turn politics into a TV show and everyone's watching all the time, they will always want me to be president. Does that make sense? So they looks like Yeah. Because Yeah.
Okay. So is perception more important than reality? And the answer is yes. Okay. And the reason why is reality it is very um hard.
It's very difficult. All right. People prefer simple ideas, simple myths that allow them to better navigate reality. That's why religion is important. Okay.
So what Trump's doing is he's creating a religion. Um he he's he he's creating a religion about himself right and it's it's it's really the same idea as Napoleon Napoleon says this right I saw the way achieve my dreams I would found a religion I saw myself as marching into Asia mounted on elephant a turban on my head and in my hand a new Quran that I would have composed to suit my needs mag is a new religion okay make America great again don't think of it as a political movement think of it as a new religion and I will explain to you why Trump is so powerful Okay, I think Trump will be president of the United States for the next 10 years. It is very hard to remove him because like once you remove him, the TV show ends. You understand? Now you have to go back to reality.
People don't want that. People want to live in a TV show. Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly right.
People want to live in a Perfect. Thank you. People want to live in a dream because that's what makes life bearable. Okay. Does that make sense?
Yeah. some musicians to be more. Okay, that's a great uh question. Okay, so the argument against this is like and like Trump is a terrible economic leader and so with this tariff war against China with this with with all these policies is is this going to make the American person more poor. Okay, so less um money spent the American won't be able to afford a house.
Okay, so this is really important but um you have to think about people's psychology. All right. So, so sorry. Let let me um write write this down because it's a very important idea. Okay.
You have to understand people's psychology. Okay. People are not thinking are not capable of thinking in absolute terms. Does that make sense? Like if I if I I give you a bottle of wine, okay?
This bottle of wine. Okay? I and I give you another bottle of wine and I ask you to tell me which which is better. You're not able to do it. Okay.
But I told you this one is $50. This one is $10. You know this this has to be better. Do you understand? So people psychology is very interesting.
But they people cannot think in objectively. Okay. People can only compare and contrast. So let's just say okay trade war the American consumer is losing ping ping power right so the person is getting more poor but if China is getting more poor in this time right so US goes down but China goes down even more people are happy. Do you understand?
Okay. I I I I I I know this is terrible, but that's this is true. I don't have to make you rich. I I just make some I just have to make everyone else poor and then you're happy, right? Make America great again.
Make America great again. Do you understand? Being great, it's just a perception. I'm better than everyone else and then I'm great. I don't have to be I don't have to be wealthy.
I just have to be better off than everyone else. So the entire world is poorer. America is happier. Does that make sense? Okay.
So that's that that's the logic here. Trump doesn't want to make America wealthy again. He just he needs to make make America a myth again. You understand? He wants to create the myth of a great America because the rest of the world is either at war or it's bankrupt or people feel hopeless.
Okay, do you understand? And honestly, um he's right. Okay, he's absolutely correct in this matter. All right, and that explains why he's doing what he's doing. Okay, does that make sense?
Okay, great. Any more questions? All right. Good. Okay.
So, uh we're taking a break. Um and then we come back from the break. We start the British Empire.