As the sun set on December 1st, 1805, the emperors of Russia and Austria felt victory within their grasp. They had the high ground, and the French were retreating in haste.  With more men, and better  With more men, better position, momentum on their side, the two grand emperors commanding their imperial troops were finally in a position to put that little Corsican upstart Napoleon in his place.

As the sun rose on the morning of the 2nd, from those commanding heights, the two emperors looked down on the French forces. They looked small.  The emperors must have imagined the French soldiers clutching their muskets, shaking in their boots.

It was going to be a good day,

 with one determined attack, this war was over, they thought.  They were right, but not in the way they believed.  Eight hours later, more than 30, 000 Austrian and Russian men were dead or captured, and the war was over, with Napoleon victorious.   He addressed his men before the day was done. Soldiers, even at this hour, before this great day shall pass away and be lost in the ocean of eternity.

Your emperor must address you, and say how satisfied he is with your conduct. The recollection of this day, and of your deeds, will be eternal.  But as pleased as he was with his men, Napoleon knew that the day belonged to him alone. Napoleon knew that the day belonged to him alone. His brilliant planning, his prodigious leadership and ability to inspire, is what had really turned the tide.

As Napoleon would later write, In war, men are nothing. One man is everything.   Today, he was that man.

 Some historians have suggested that this battle, the Battle of Austerlitz, ruined Napoleon.  His victory was so complete in the face of such overwhelming odds that he no longer believed himself capable of defeat. And I think that's probably an exaggeration.  But how does something like this warp a man's psyche?

Taking on two of the world's greatest armies, taking on two of the world's greatest armies, with inferior position, and crushing them.  And crushing them against these overwhelming odds.

There's a quote by Steve Jobs, Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. Everything around you, that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it.  There's a quote by Steve Jobs. He said, Life It makes me think of a quote by Steve Jobs. It makes me think of a quote by Steve Jobs.

He said, Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things.  And that's meant to be motivational, and it is.

But there might be a dark side to it as well.

How does your view of the world change when everything around you can be made or unmade at a whim?

Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant, Napoleon La Napoleon later said, Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained, I am invulnerable, unassailable.  He didn't know how wrong he was.

  📍 Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Welcome to the second part of my series on Napoleon Bonaparte. The life of Napoleon is required learning for any ambitious young person.  The life of Napoleon is required learning for any ambitious person. I don't think there's anyone else who can truly claim to have conquered the world to the same extent that Napoleon did.

Huh. Did I just Alright.

Starting over? Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Welcome to the second part of my series on Napoleon Bonaparte. The life of Napoleon is required learning for any ambitious person. I don't think there's anyone who else I don't think there's anyone else who can truly claim to have conquered the world to the stame Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World.

This is Ben Wilson. Welcome to the second part of my series on Napoleon Bonaparte. The life of Napoleon is required learning for any ambitious person. I don't think there's anyone else who can truly claim to have conquered the world to the same extent that Napoleon did. And in this second part, I want to move more into his reign as emperor and how he governed.

Because even though the life of a military conqueror and emperor  might seem remote to us, I do think that there is a ton that can be learned from his life, from his work habits, his tactics, his strategies.

Maybe you think to yourself, , Napoleon isn't a relevant example because,  because I can't accomplish what he did. And I might not even want, because I can't accomplish what he did. No one is conquering vast pan European empires anymore.

And that might be true, but even if you don't imagine yourself a great conqueror or the founder of a nation even if you have more modest goals, I certainly hope you do,  Even if you have more modest goals, I suspect that you do, and you just want to be a great entrepreneur, great athlete, great executive, great academic, great professional in whatever sphere.

I think this will inspire and motivate you to think bigger than you have been thinking.   There's also something I want to mention before we get started, which is this question of was Napoleon a good person?  Is he someone admirable?

You know, people often juxtapose Napoleon as the liberal reformer with Napoleon as the autocrat.

So look,  there are a lot of admirable things about Napoleon.  However, Napoleon was a tyrant.  There are those who want to defend him by saying,  no, he wasn't, he was something else. But I think you can only defend Napoleon by acknowledging what and who he truly was. The word tyrant has Greek origins, and any Greek would have looked at Napoleon and said, Yep, that is a tyrant.

Textbook case. Zero deviation from the definition. He came to power in the way that was typical of tyrants, he kept his power in the way that was typical of tyrants, and he wielded his power in a way that was typical of tyrants. He is, like,

He could not be any more of a stereotypical tyrant. That is what he was, but he wasn't just a tyrant, but that doesn't mean he was just a tyrant. He,

but he wasn't just a tyrant,  but he wasn't just a tyrant. He was such a genius that he managed to live a beautiful and interesting life and create a number of beautiful and interesting legacies in his tyranny.

So I'd encourage you as you listen to this episode, instead of constantly trying to make joke.  So I would encourage you when you listen to this episode, instead of constantly trying to make moral judgments of, is this good? Is this bad? First, just try and take in the man. Try and understand who he was.  Try and understand who he was from a very objective perspective.

And then when it's all said and done, and you have all the information, and you understand him a little better, then you can sit there and make your judgments and find out. Then you can sit there and make your judgments and and analyze and think.  and analyze and figure out how you feel about him. You can analyze and figure out how you feel about him and his legacy.

In this episode, we're going to talk about the apex of his power and maybe what that did to his mindset,

as I talked a little bit about in the intro. And also we're going to talk about how he administered his empire. Exactly, you know, how he did what he did. We'll talk about the mindset that allowed him to accomplish so much. And we'll also talk about how the same mindset might have fueled him.

And we'll talk about how the same mindset that fueled him might have led to his downfall. Because of hubris and his inability to stop.

Because of hubris and his inability to stop.

So obviously I am

revisiting the life of Napoleon because I find him to  to be so incredibly,  to, be incredibly inspirational and motivating.  And also instructional, and instructional in both a positive and negative aspect. This is somebody who accomplished more than anyone that I know of in all of history, but also died alone, in exile, with no power.

So I think there are things to be learned from his rise, from his reign and from his ruin. So I hope you enjoy it.

Sources are in the show notes and just one note before we really get into it. Check out my new website, takeoverpod.  com. We just redid it in the last week or so. And I think it is really cool.

Big shout out to the guys at Tamba. digital T A M B A dot  that's T A M B A dot digital for the work that they did on the website. I think it's incredible. So with that, let's dig into the reign and ruin of Napoleon Bonaparte. I think it's really incredible.  So with all that, I think it's really incredible, so just check it out, just take a look.

So just check it out, take a look. I've got some transcripts up there. Um,

I've got some transcripts up there if you want to read this podcast rather than listening to it. Uh, you can sign up for the newsletter if you want to get even more How to Take Over the World content into your inbox. Uh, there's a lot of good stuff on it. I think you guys will find it cool, so check it out.

With all that said, let's get into it. This is The Reign and Ruin of Napoleon Bonaparte. 📍

Maybe you think to yourself,

okay, you need to go back through that and kind of resort and, and rejigger. All right.

The Peace of Amiens created a golden age for France. Thousands of men returned from the army to productivity.  📍  The Peace of Amiens created a golden age for France. Thousands of men returned from the army to productive economic activity. Thousands of English tourists flocked to Paris to catch a glimpse of their near neighbor, who had been inaccessible to them for more than a decade because of the Revolutionary Wars.

Artistic activity flourished as Paris once again became the cultural center of Europe, and Paris seemed to be one never ending party as locals and visitors celebrated a new age of prosperity and peace.

Again, the two countries had been at war for more than a decade,  especially in France. Everyone knew someone who had died in the revolutionary wars.

It had devastated many, many, many, it had devastated many, many people economically.

And after years upon years of violence, it had seemed like it would never end.   Now,

and now suddenly, very soon after Napoleon had taken power.   📍  It was hugely popular in France, and just about everywhere else in the world, too. People usually think of these European wars. People usually think of these as European wars. And that definitely was the main theater of conflict. But the effects of these wars were felt in India, North and South Africa, the United But the effects of these wars were felt in India, North and South Africa, the United States and Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East, and beyond. In many ways, the phrase World War is a better description of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars than the 20th century conflicts that have received that name.

Now just because And so Napoleon was a global icon for the peace that he brought.   But just because he was popular doesn't mean that he was safe. Assassination plots against Napoleon continued from disaffected Jacobins. Those  Those again are these, those again are these far left revolutionaries. And also from royalists. These are far right reactionaries.

But Napoleon's popularity was never higher than it was during the Peace of Amiens.  He was 33 years old, in the prime of his life, and in the prime of his abilities as a general, a statesman, and a leader.

But, even as people celebrated, the cracks in the peace began to show almost immediately. Amiens had established a solid diplomatic and military understanding between France and Great Britain. But importantly, the Peace of Amiens made no provisions for any economic deal. Napoleon had insisted that their, Napoleon had insisted that no trade deal be included in the overall peace.

He said that the diplomatic and military conflict needed to be solved before a trade deal could even be discussed.  Well, this is a problem because a major impetus for the British to come to the negotiating table was the prospect of renewed economic activity. Remember,

remember, Great Britain was definitely a commercial republic.

Trade and their economy was sort of everything to them.  Opening up those markets was a vital matter of national interest. And the assumption was that those markets would indeed open up after the peace of Amiens, but no trade deal was forthcoming. The British economy was very well developed and very industrialized.

If a free trade deal were reached. British merchants could outcomplete if a free trade deal were reached. British merchants could outcompete their French counterparts in a variety of industries, but especially in textiles and industrial productions, essentially, you know, mass production factories. And so Napoleon was very keen to protect French industry.

So in the hoped for economic benefits of the treaty.

And so Napoleon was very keen to protect French industry, so he levied very heavy taxes and duties on British merchants who tried to trade within France, and in some cases outright banned their goods from being sold. So when the hoped for,  so this deal essentially generates No positive economic benefits for the British.

In fact, it generates some negative economic benefit. In fact, it generates some negative economic effects because now they have French competitors where before they did not because of the war.

So when the hope for economic benefits of the treaty failed to materialize for the British. They soured on the deal. They were not interested in keeping it going.  And when you really boil it down to why the Peace of Amiens failed, the heart of the issue was this. For the British to be satisfied, Napoleon would have to stop his economic competition, which would mean cementing England's place as the world's preeminent power.

Both the world's preeminent economic power, and then coming from that, the primary geopolitical power.  On the other hand, for the French to be satisfied, the British would have to accept a France who was militarily far superior to the British and economically, quickly rising to become their peer,  and economically, quickly rising to become their peer.

In other words, the British would have to give up their spot as the world's foremost economic and geopolitical power.

And so sometimes people try and, um,  and sometimes, and so sometimes people try and portray the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens as this very irrational thing. That if the French and British had just been able to come together and talk this out, uh, everything would have been simpatico. I don't think so.

They were locked in a death struggle to be the preeminent power in the world. And fundamentally, there were conflicts there.  And fundamentally, there were national interest conflicts there. peace in one setting would mean that Britain would continue to be  That peace in one setting would continue to mean that Britain would be superior to French.  that the peace would have to have rules that would facilitate the superiority of either England or France.

And so while the Peace of Amiens provided a breath of fresh air for everyone involved, it failed relatively quickly.  It was ultimately the French who benefited the most from the peace. And it was, in my mind at least, ultimately the British who broke the pact.  But that doesn't mean Napoleon was blameless.

He continued to flex his power abroad during the peace. This included interference in Switzerland,  imposed French authority, and an unfortunate incident where he sent French troops into a neutral country, Baden, a part of present day Germany, in order to capture and execute an aristocrat who he suspected of plotting to assassinate him.

And as it turns out, he was probably wrong about this. And it was a diplomatic disaster. It contributed to the impression that Napoleon was an endlessly ambitious dictator bent on world domination.  It would have been very difficult for England to accept France as a second preeminent power on par with themselves under any circumstances.

But Napoleon's belligerence and meddling made the very difficult basically impossible.

So the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March of 1802. And it breaks down just over a year later, in May of 1803, when Britain declared war on France.  It was a surprise declaration of war, which allowed Britain to seize hundreds of French and Dutch merchant ships, and steal more than two million pounds worth of goods.

Additionally, all the crews were taken  Additionally, all the crews were taken as prisoners of war. In retaliation, Napoleon has over 1, 100 British nationals in France imprisoned.  Britain persuaded a number of other powers to join the coalition against France, including Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Naples.

Napoleon was at war once again.

Napoleon's first move was to assemble a giant invasion  Napoleon's fir  Napoleon's first move was to assemble a giant invasion force in northern France. He badly wanted to strike a blow at England itself.  Hello.

Napoleon's first move was to assemble a giant invasion force In northern France, on the coast. He badly wanted to strike a blow at England itself. And it must have been tantalizing for him. At its narrowest point, the English Channel is only 21 miles across. He could practically reach out and touch it.  If he could just get across those 20 miles, there would be no one to stop him.

He has this quote, you can hear him just yearning. He said, quote, It is necessary for us to be masters of the sea for six hours only. and England will cease to exist.  He said, it is necessary for us to be masters of the sea for six hours only, and England will have ceased to exist.  And yet he never could gain mastery of the channel, not even for six hours.

The British Navy was just too powerful.  And so his army waited and waited. Facing the Channel, Cursing the Channel, Cursing the English, but all in vain.  Well, as Britain adds allies to their coalition, Napoleon decides that he can no longer afford to have his best army kicking rocks on the beach, and so he renames it from the Army of England to Le Grande Armée.

And he turns it East to take on the Austrians and Russians, who are, once again, threatening to invade French territory.

Now, for a while, Napoleon had been moving his forces towards something that would ultimately come to be known as the Core System.  And this campaign is where the corps system would fully emerge. This is how Andrew Roberts describes it. Each corps was effectively a mini army, with its own infantry, cavalry, artillery, staff, intelligence, engineering, transport, victualing, pay, medical and commissary sections, intended to work in close connection with other corps.

Moving within one day's march of each other, they allowed Napoleon to swap around the rearguard, vanguard, or reserve at a moment's notice.  So in other words, um,  so in other words, if that wasn't clear, you,  so in other words, if that wasn't clear, what Napoleon is doing here is you have these mini armies, which allows you.

So in other words, if that wasn't clear,  Napoleon is dividing up his army into these mini armies, which he calls core,  which allows you to move really quickly because they can travel slightly different routes and live off the land and they're very flexible and the system is great for seeking out and destroying an enemy.

Because a single corps can engage an enemy army and hold its own for a day while it waits for the rest of the corps to show up and reinforce it.

It's very innovative and would soon prove to be very deadly.  Well, the speed,  the speed at which the corps move allow them to completely surround the lead Austrian army and cut off their line of retreat.  Now, I should add that it's not just the corps system that is keeping them moving fast.

Cough, cough, cough.   Napoleon was obsessed with speed, and incredibly impatient. The two went hand in hand. He ate quickly. He spoke quickly. He moved quickly. He did everything quickly because he always wanted to be moving forward, getting ahead. Andrew Roberts calls impatience, quote, The most constant of all Napoleon's military,

They march so quickly that Napoleon doesn't have dry clothing or his normal supplies for dinner and has to eat an omelette made of country eggs for dinner.  They move so breathtakingly fast that by the time the Austrians even find out about the presence of the French army, they are already surrounded.

Can you imagine that? A hundred and seventy thousand men. This is not a small army. And the first thing you hear about them They have surrounded you and cut you off.

There are some very minor battles as the Austrians make some weak attempts to break out. But ultimately, the Austrian army is forced to surrender. Twenty  But ultimately, the army is forced to surrender. More than 40, 000 men, 3, 300 cavalry, and 60 cannons are captured virtually without a shot being fired.

This comes to be known as the Battle of Ulm, which is the city where the Austrians were  as the Battle of Ulm,  besieged and ultimately surrendered. But it's kind of a misnomer to call it the Battle of Ulm. It's more like the non Battle of Ulm.

Napoleon had to say about it, quote, I have carried out all my plans. I have destroyed the Austrian army simply by marching.

But Napoleon, with his characteristic impatience, pushes on. He was impatient even when ahead of schedule. He ra He was impatient even when ahead of schedule. So he races on across Germany and into Austria where the Austrians are forced to flee their capital.  There's a story that a captured Austrian soldier sees Napoleon and Napoleon is helping push some cannons through the mud.

And his imperial uniform is spattered with dirt and mud. And the Austrian soldier expresses his surprise that an emperor, and not just an emperor, but an emperor of the greatest empire in Europe right now, would be doing this kind of work.

Napoleon responds to him, quote, Your master wanted to remind me that I am a soldier. I hope he will own that the imperial purple has not caused me to forget my first trade.  What a cool response. Your emperor wanted to cut me down to size and remind me that I'm nothing but a soldier. Well, he was right. I haven't forgotten that I am a soldier, and I'm still a pretty good one.

 want to take the time to highlight just one note that I made here. And it's this thing that pops up in all the biographies that you read about Napoleon.

And that is, in every one of them, the wars that he fights typically take the leading role in the narrative of his life. But then you get to all these random sentences that pop up, like this one. Uh, I think this one is from the Roberts biography. It says, quote, On September 10th, Napoleon took time that day to instruct the 53 year old Pierre Forfay On September 10th, Napoleon took time that day to instruct the 53 year old Pierre Forfay, Prefect of Genoa, to stop taking his young mistress, a Roman girl who is no more than a prostitute, to the theater.  So, Napoleon was the emperor, and he was a man with a military background, but he was a genuine head of state with direct control and responsibility for every aspect of French government, and really every aspect of French life.

He was making decisions about education, infrastructure, entertainment, public works, um, urban design, policing, espionage,  society, social affairs, industry, banking, um, the financial situation, monetary policy, science and research, diplomacy, religion, and the relationship with the Catholic Church, freedom of religion, trade, waterways and navigation, not to mention his rather obvious oversight of the army and the navy.

And so you're tempted to think that he couldn't have really been the chief executive of all these things. You might imagine him,  you might imagine him like the president of the United States, who has certain areas where he's expected to have a certain level of control, you know, like defense, homeland security, and then other areas where he might have no direct input at all.

And other areas where he might have no direct input at all. Basically leaves it all to, uh, permanent professional staff who keep things going. But that is not how the French Empire  but that was not how the French Empire worked at all. Napoleon was a true chief executive. And of course he delegated, but he was really ultimately responsible for everything that happened. There was no one else who he could shift blame onto. There was no Congress, no Parliament that could block his actions, no existing set of laws to stymie him.

That was all replaced with the Napoleonic Code. So even though he obviously delegated the vast majority of the actual implementation of these efforts, he had an understanding of, and a vision for, all these areas that I just highlighted. So how do you do that? How in the world could you possibly take on responsibility in all these different domains?

How can you possibly So how do you do that? How could you possibly actually be the chief executive of all those functions at once? And the answer is that you have to have a frankly insane capacity to digest information and spit out instructions. And that is exactly what Napoleon had. He was naturally gifted with an extraordinary intellect and memory.

I mean, truly like a top 0. 001 percent brain, but he was also served by a record keeping and secretarial system that increased the efficiency of all his actions.   I don't know what to call it. The term I'm using in my own head is a management apparatus. It's a little clunky. I'm workshopping it.  But I think it conveys this idea that he had like a second brain.

They had like a second brain to mag. To multiply and magnify all of his actions.  I think a little bit of it, like a, I think of it a little bit like a Gundam. If you know what that is, or if any of you are like my age and you watch Power Rangers growing up, they had Megazords, which are like these big suits, like a big robot suit, right?

That increases,  it's like a big robot suit, right? So you move your right arm and this huge robot moves its right arm. It's kind of like that, right?  He could make one little decision and

In the first episode, I talked about a letter he wrote to the French government when they were trying to split his command. And he said, quote, I have gained some advantages over very superior forces. While in an almost destitute condition, because I was persuaded of your entire confidence in me, my moves were as prompt as my thoughts.

And that is really the goal of his management apparatus, to make his moves as prompt as his thoughts across a variety of domains. Or, if I could rephrase it to something a little more catchy, I would call it moving at the speed of thought.  Napoleon was the great brain of the French Empire, and all the friction around that brain was removed.

So what did that actually look like? Well, for example, he had these record books and the books were very similar across domains. So for example, in the army book, you would have a brigade and its commander and its home base and its troop numbers and so on all this information about this brigade. But then every effort was made to make the columns match up as closely as possible.

In the naval books, where you'd have a ship, and its captain, and its home base, and a number of sailors, and it would look very, very similar to the army record book. And efforts were even made to make things line up in the record book for public works, and finances, and so on, so that Napoleon wouldn't have to reset how he was taking in information if he moved from, say, a record book on the armies of Germany to a record book of the roads in northern Italy.

In his output, friction was similarly reduced. He had a secretary ready to take his dictation around the clock. All he had to do was walk into his office and say, Write, and then start dictating, and the secretary would start writing whatever he said.

In fact, it went beyond that. For military matters, Napoleon didn't need to fill  In fact, it went beyond that. For military matters, Napoleon didn't even need to fill in all the details because his chief of staff, Berthier, was a genius at taking Napoleon's thoughts, even his most vague of instructions, and turning them into specific commands.

Napoleon might say, have the Third Corps move south and cut off the Austrians rear. And once Napoleon was done dictating, Berthier would make sure the Corps knew which road to take, what to do if the Austrians engaged, what to do if they didn't, where to stay, when they needed to be there, how to supply themselves, all the little instructions that went into making sure that that command actually happened.

Napoleon was a very detail oriented person, so for some very important operations, he would get into that level of detail himself. But because he needed to command so much at such speed, he mostly left those details to Berthier or to other subordinates, especially if they were people he knew he could trust.

And by the way, Napoleon's commitment to moving fast and getting work done efficiently was extreme. So generally, he would go to bed quite early, and then he would wake up around midnight or 1 a. m., receive any reports that had come in, issue the day's instructions so that everyone had their orders when they woke up, And then go back to bed around 3 a.

m. and sleep the rest of the night.  And this was done so that when everyone woke up, they had their orders in hand from the emperor. No time was lost assessing the situation, waiting for orders, or anything like that. Everyone was just ready to move.

And when he was on campaign, his same staff would issue orders and instructions for everything. So he might be issuing movement orders for his army, and then get a letter and have to make a decision about the placement of a girls school in Paris. And his same secretarial staff could fire off letters for both things.

Napoleon was so extreme about the efficiency with which he worked that he wouldn't even set down letters that he had just read. He just let them drop to the floor and began reading the next letter.  would scurry in later when he was done and scoop up the discarded letters and file them as appropriate.

And of course there were many layers to this And of course there were many layers to this Napoleon had a specially designed carriage to facilitate his filing system He had his palace specially

he had the rooms in his palace specially designed to facilitate his habit of midnight work He had a custom desk, but rather than going into every detail  He had a custom desk  He had a custom desk. He had all sorts of stuff that facilitated this and rather than going into every detail Let's just say that Napoleon did indeed undertake every arrangement To ensure that he, his army, and his government could all move at the speed of thought.

One other thing that I will mention is that one of the reasons that the Austrians had moved so far forward and were able to be surrounded by Napoleon at the Battle of Ulm is because they had learned from his invasions of Italy. And they thought, okay, this Napoleon guy, he moves fast. So we need to move fast, we need to copy him.

But you don't move fast just because you want to. Napoleon's entire life was bent around the idea of speed, his staff setup, the way his army was supplied, the way he organized his command structure, Even his obsession with his men's shoes. He was constantly writing letters about the quality and quantity of his soldier's shoes because he wanted to make sure that they could literally physically march quickly.

So everything was built around speed. You don't become fast just by wanting to be fast. You could be  You don't become fast just by wanting to be fast. You become fast by making it the center of everything you do and building systems that enable you to go fast.

Well, having defeated one Austrian army at Ulm, Napoleon still had to deal with the rest of the Austrian armies as well as the Russians. With his usual speed, he blitzed through Central Europe and into Austria, taking their capital of Vienna. The Austrians, however, did not surrender just because they had lost their capital.

They were still waiting for a decisive battle, and with their emperor

They were still waiting for a decisive battle, and their emperor was still in the field with the main body of their forces.

Now,  now, the primary Russian general, his name was Kutuzov, and he wanted to keep retreating into Russia. Drag the French out, extend their supply lines, which now stretch through hostile Austria, and let the French exhaust themselves before trying to fight them.  But the Austrians were obviously not keen.

on letting their country stay occupied by the French. And the Russian emperor, Alexander, who was marching with his army, was also not thrilled by the idea of retreating in front of this French army, which was now very tired after having marched very, very quickly, after having marched very, very quickly over a matter of months.

The allied army of Austrian Russia was larger. And it was fresher, and it was better supplied.  The only reason to decline to give battle was the presence  The only reason to decline to give battle to the French was the presence of Napoleon himself.  And for him, this  And for the Russian emperor, this was personal.

Emperor against emperor. It was embarrassing to retreat with his superior forces in front of Napoleon. He didn't want to acknowledge that this was a superior man.  Nevertheless, no one had clear command. There was no strong momentum toward where or when to give the attack against the French. And Napoleon could see that if he wanted a decisive battle, he would have to lure his enemy into a battle.

And Napoleon could see that if he wanted a decisive battle, he was going to have to lure his enemy into it.  So he used a number of different tricks to convince the Austrians and Russians that he was retreating and wanted no part in a fight with them right now. The first thing he did is, using the core system, he kept a vastly inferior force in the area of his enemies.

His men were outnumbered two to one. Now, he had enough men within a day's march that he could almost even the odds when they attacked, but to the Austrians and Russians it looked like they had overwhelming numbers.  He sent envoys asking for a temporary armistice and when Russian envoys came to negotiate, he intentionally acted nervous and left out maps showing an imminent retreat.

But there was one reason why they thought the French must not want to fight.

The French had occupied a very advantageous plateau called the Protsen Heights. This was the perfect position in the area and everyone could see it. It's where you wanted your army to be because up on this plateau you could see all around you, you could set up artillery positions and fire down on your enemies during a battle.

And the French abandon the Pratzen Heights and take up a position in the valley below. This is a borderline insane decision. Only someone in an all out retreat would abandon these Pratzen Heights, or so it seemed. In reality, Napoleon was so confident that he was willing to give up the Pratzen Heights just to get his opponents to attack him.    📍  The French troops were feeling very confident. They trusted in their commander, and they trusted in themselves. They trusted in their commander, and they trusted in themselves. Napoleon spent the night before walking through the encampments and talking with the men.

He was a great leader who was able to inspire. And you see all these great records of this banter that he used to pump up his men. In one encounter, he says, Do you know these people think they are going to swallow us up? To which one of his men replies, Let them just try it. We should soon choke them.  Uh, on,  uh,  uh, in another incident, he's going through and inspecting the men, making sure they have everything they need.

And he asks them if they have the cartridges that they need in order to fire their muskets. And a soldier replied, no, but the Russians taught us in Switzerland that only bayonets are needed for them. We'll show you tomorrow.

At some point, one of the soldiers, at some point, one of the soldiers realizes that it is the anniversary.  At one point, one of the soldiers realizes that it is the anniversary of the emperor's coronation as. At one point, one of the soldiers realizes that it's past midnight, and therefore it is the anniversary of Napoleon's coronation as emperor.

And so they start celebrating his coronation, and cries ring out throughout the encampment. Vive l'Empereur! Long live the Emperor!

The Austrians and Russians may have had the

The Austrians and Russians may have had the high ground, but this is something they didn't have. They didn't have that energy and that belief that the French soldiers had.    If Napoleon's victories in episode one were characterized by their simplicity, the Battle of Austerlitz, as it would come to be known, would become,  would become known for its strategic brilliance.    📍 The Allies were set up on the Protsen Heights, of course. Napoleon's troops sat in the valley below. His right flank, so his soldiers kind of, if you're Napoleon and you're looking at the enemy, you've got your center and you've got your right flank, that's all the men to your right, and your left flank, your men to the left.

And he kept his right flank intentionally weakened to invite an attack.

Despite their,  despite their new mirror, despite their numerical,  despite their numerical and fear,  despite their numerical inferiority, the right flank was dug in, in a strong position at the village of Telnitz. They were also soon to be reinforced by one of these core that was marching towards the battle, Davout, Napoleon's most capable Marshal, who was marching  Napoleon's most capable.

Napoleon's most capable commander other than himself.  Even with these reinforcements, the French would be badly outnumbered, nearly two to one. They couldn't actually hold this right flank. They couldn't actually win on this right flank, but they didn't need to. They just needed to buy time.  So the morning of the battle, the  So on the morning of the battle, the coalition totally takes the bait.

So the morning of the battle, the coalition gets up and they totally take the bait. They see this weakened right flank and they think, Oh, this is the perfect chance to just punch through there and then go around and flank and surround the French army. And so they attack.  As Davout

As Davout As Davout As Davout As Davout As Davout As Davout As Davout stubbornly held out on the right flank, the Allies sent even more columns in an attempt to break through.  But they're sending all these columns from where? From where they had been massed on the Protsen Heights. And so as they're sending more and more people to the right flank to attack This meant that the Protsen Heights, the much desired high ground in the middle of the battlefield, was now lightly defended.

They didn't worry too much about it, because, as far as they could see, there were no French troops around who were close enough to attack the heights.  But that Was where they were wrong.

 In reality, the low lands where the French army was were not really flat. They were a series of shallow, gentle hills. The morning of the Decem, the morning of December 2nd was foggy, and the full extent of Napoleon Center was hidden in that fog.  The Austrian Russian. The Austrians and Russians couldn't see all of these soldiers right in Napoleon's center because they're, because they're sunk down in a valley and they're just shrouded in frau and they're just shrouded in fog.

And just around 11 a. m.,

and so Napoleon orders these hidden troops to attack the Protsen Heights. And just around 11 a. m., as they start to climb the hill onto the plateau, the sun burns off all the fog and they were revealed to the enemy.

Right as it's too late to do anything. The sun

The sun of Austerlitz would come to be the enduring symbol of the day's battle. It would symbolize Napoleon's planning, good luck, and preternatural skill.  Napoleon's center takes the Protsen Heights, and this causes absolute havoc for the Austrians and Russians. For the co

for the coalition, for the coalition attack on the right flank, attack on the right flank, they now had French troops. In front of them, that's Davout, with his men who are kind of dug in. And now, these soldiers from, and now these other soldiers that Napoleon had sent are up on the Protsen Heights, kind of behind them, and able to fire down on them.

Some of the columns that had recently left the Protsen Heights turn around and made a desperate attempt to fight the French, who had just shown up there. The most famous of these counter offensives was made by the Imperial Guard of the Russian army.  These were like the Navy SEALs, the SAS, the Special Forces.

Of the Russian army, they were especially known among,  they were kind of known across Europe for being huge, like physically massive people. They really focused on recruiting tall, broad, strong people, and they were spectacular warriors. They came into,

they had earned a reputation as really fearsome, very talented fighters, and so their counter offensive is at first really effective until Napoleon sends in some of his special forces to combat them. And so.

And so you have this absolutely spectacular fight,  you know, in most battles across all of history. There's not many times when you get two determined forces really just fighting to the death. Most of the time, one side is going to break. It's just really sucks to be shot at, or have a swords, it just really sucks to be shot at, or to have spears thrown at you, or people trying to swing swords at you.

And so typically, battles don't last very long, especially with both sides fighting each other.  Both of these forces are so well trained, so elite, so prideful, that you have this really fierce fighting over a long period of time. But ultimately, the French were too numerous, too organized, and too disciplined.

To be defeated on the pro heights,

the Russian special forces are driven off, and then from the commanding pos,  the Russian forces are driven off. And then from their commanding position on the heights, they turn the French artillery on the rest of the coalition forces and the battle turns into an all-out route. In one memorable scene, French cannons fired down on Russian and Austrian soldiers as they crossed frozen lakes surrounding the heights breaking the ice and causing the coalition soldiers to drown in the freezing water.

 Okay, I have to insert this part earlier.

Austerlitz would go down in history as Napoleon's greatest battle, and he always considered it such as well. The battle was a symbol both of his genius, and the son of Austerlitz was a symbol of his luck, of his good fortune. Napoleon always encouraged the belief that he was lucky.

As did many other great generals,  and Napoleon was actually borrowing this tactic.

He said of Caesar, quote, He was right to cite his good fortune and to appear to believe in it. This is a means of acting on the imagination of others without offending anyone's self love.  In other words, if you tout your own genius, you might come across as arrogant. You offend others, you make them envious.

If, however, you claim to be very lucky. Or blessed by the gods or touched by destiny, then you are implicitly making the claim of greatness,

but without all that baggage, men will still want to follow you. Of course, you want to follow someone who just miraculously wins all the time when they're lucky,  uh,

but you avoid, Yeah, as he said, offending anyone's self love. But I do think Napoleon was also genuinely lucky. There's a quote, I see it attributed to Seneca. I don't know if that's right, but either way, I appreciate the sentiment, which is, and you've probably heard this quote, luck is preparation meeting opportunity.

And I do think there is something to that.  If I can be so presumptuous to offer myself as an example, I have been really lucky to have this podcast discovered and championed by some people with big platforms. First, Sam Parr, uh, later, Mr. Beast, Cliff Weitzman, Sahil Bloom, Brian Johnson. I didn't do anything to deserve these people.

I didn't search them out. I didn't send them my podcast. It was total luck, but I did have the podcast. I had something for them to champion, and so I was able to capitalize on that opportunity. That was, for me, preparation meeting opportunity. On the flip side, since I just gave a good example of myself, I'll give a bad example.

I've told this story before on the show, I can't remember which episode, but I remember this incident where I got into an elevator. When I was just a college student and being in an elevator ride with a very famous prominent person who I looked up to.  And I realized that I just had nothing to say to him.

I had nothing to ask for, nothing to offer, nothing to ask for, nothing to offer. I just wasn't in a place in my life at the time where I could take advantage of that serendipity.  And so in many ways, you create your own luck.

And so in many ways, and so in many ways, you create your own luck by being,

and so in many ways you create your own luck by being in a place where you can take advantage of it. It's also true the saying fortune.  It's also true the saying fortune favors the bold. With Napoleon, there is always this constant push, is how I would describe it forward, faster, more. He's always poking, prodding, moving the world.

He's always poking, prodding, moving, and because he's always pushing and looking for opportunities to exploit, he is often finding them. And that comes across as luck.  Okay, so Austerlitz ends the war of the Third Coalition. The Russians and British don't make peace, but they retreat to their home country.

The Russians and British don't make peace, but the Russians retreat to their own home country, cease active hostilities, and the Austrians are completely defeated and have to make peace on French terms. Over the next year, the Holy Roman Empire is abolished, and something called the Confederation of the Rhine takes its place.

The Holy Roman Empire was a feature of European international politics for over a thousand years. Voltaire joked that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, and he was correct. It was founded in the 800s by Charlemagne, and it was a secular political body, so not holy. It was definitively German, and in fact by the time of Napoleon, people casually usually referred to it as the German Empire, so definitely not Roman.

And in fact, it wasn't even an empire. It was actually a loose confederation. So,  not holy, not Roman, not an empire. Well, what was it?

Well, it's hard to define because the empire changed many times over its thousands  Well, it's hard to define because the empire had changed many times over its thousand years of existence. In the beginning, it actually was an empire, founded by Charlemagne. But, by the time Napoleon comes around, more than anything, it's a forum for the many tiny German states that existed to work together, to sort out their differences, negotiate, find a way to coexist, and undertake,

for the many tiny German states that existed, to work together, sort out their differences, negotiate, and find a way to coexist.  It had come to be seen as something of a relic, as anything that is a thousand years old is in danger of. It was an outdated acronism of the past. And yet, its disillusion also brought about a lot of consternation, a lot of anxiety.

from those Germans who had a perhaps irrational but nostalgic attachment to it.

One place where it caused a lot of anxiety was the Kingdom of Prussia.

You know, it was used to having all of these little weak German states that were a part of the Holy Roman Empire on its borders. And the Confederation of the Rhine, which took its place and was French dominated, extended French influence into Central Europe and put French Prussia's border. Making them deeply uncomfortable that France could potentially start to,

that France could potentially start to meddle in their affairs or maybe even invade at some point. So Prussia starts to become belligerent. There were in Prussian society, two factions. One was pro French and the other was anti French, and for a number of reasons, including the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the anti French faction was beginning to ascend and become more influential.

And the Prussians thought that they had a great chance of beating France in a war. They were sort of the original French in that 50 years earlier, Frederick the Great had ruled Prussia as an enlightened despot. In much the same way that Napoleon was doing in France. And the Prussians had been the most professional, innovative, and feared fighting force in Europe in the same way that the French now were.

And so, maybe it was a little out of date, but the Prussians still saw themselves this way. As this great fighting force still just waiting to be unleashed.

Now, in truth, the French and others had passed the Prussians by. But they didn't know that yet. They hadn't been tested. And it had been a while since they had But they didn't know that yet. It'd been a while since their army had been tested. And so they thought they were still this hyper professional, feared fighting force of 50 years earlier.

And so they declare war on France a little more than a year after Austerlitz to start the war of the Fourth Coalition.

Prussia was poorly led, poorly trained, disorganized, and feckless from the very beginning of the war of the Fourth Coalition. The French march straight into Prussia, and with Napoleonic's characteristic speed, hand them a stiff defeat at the Battle of Jena.  The Prussians have to retreat to their far eastern territories, where they can link up with the Russians, and sit in a defensive position, and have to watch while Napoleon occupies Berlin.

In Berlin, Napoleon visits the tomb of Frederick the Great, who he greatly admired, and looked to as a hero, as someone who he really wanted to emulate and be like.  He stared at the tomb for a long time in silence.   📍  I wonder if maybe Napoleon felt lonely in that moment. Here is the one man in the world who could truly understand him.

The one, you know, kindred spirit he had ever met in his life. And he was dead.

And he was dead. He was unreachable in the grave.  After a long pause,  📍 Napoleon said to his companions, Hats off, gentlemen. If he were still alive, we wouldn't be here today.

  Napoleon eventually does attack the Prussians and Russians near modern Kaliningrad. The Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, and they fight to a standstill at the Battle of Ailau, and then Napoleon scores a crushing victory, and then Napoleon scores a crushing victory at Friedland, which forces the Prussians into submission and forces the Russians to the negotiating table.

Napoleon and the Russian Emperor Alexander I meet at a town called Tilsit.  The two armies are on either side of the Neman River, and the negotiation  And the negotiations actually take place in a specially built structure that floats on a raft in the middle of the river. And this was an intentional  And this was an And this was a deliberate choice on the,  and this was a deliberate choice on the part of Napoleon.

Because the expectation was, alright, you just crushed the Prussians and the Russians, and so he could dictate terms. And so the Russians were expecting that he was going to take territory from them, and force a really difficult treaty and peace on them. But Napoleon had a different idea, and his idea was, I'm actually going to take nothing from Russia, I'm going to prop them up, and I'm going to use them.

To divide Europe.  So I'm going to say to Russia, okay, you guys can have Eastern Europe. You keep a lid on it and you don't mess with me and we'll work together and I'll take central and Western Europe. And that's how we'll divide it. Napoleon was able to charm the young Russian emperor, Alexander I, and they got along really well and seemed to be developing a pretty strong friendship.

Much of their time was spent not just negotiating, but discussing philosophy and politics and,

and politics and theories of governance. And so it was more than just a professional relationship. At least that's what Napoleon thought. He thought it was a true friendship that he was striking up with Alexander.

The agreement that they come to is that Russia agrees to join. The continental system, a continental bligate,

and so again the agreement they come to is to divide the continent and a key part of this is an agreement that they will enter into a continental blockade against Britain. That neither one of them will allow any British goods in any of their ports and they will completely lock out the British from any European trade.

This is 1807, it has been 8 years since Napoleon came to power. He's about to turn 38 years old, and this marked the high water for Napoleon's empire. He controls what is now France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, as well as having satellite states friendly to him that he basically controls in Western Germany, Denmark, and Poland.

And even the places he doesn't control, like Austria, are allied with him, so things are looking good for Napoleon. He basically So things are looking good for Napoleon. He basically controls all of Europe. The only place that really still stands in defiance of him is the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

And yet, this is when things begin to unravel. And yet, it is at this moment of supreme power that Napoleon begins to make decisions that would lead to his unraveling.   📍 Tamba.

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It's amazing. You can go to takeoverpod. com to see it. And, um, you can just see the quality of their work and it's amazing. It's really leveled up It's really leveled up my web presence.  my web presence.

So I can't recommend them highly enough. If you need any sort of digital product, again, an app, a web app, a website. Work with Tamba, you won't regret it. Check them out at Tamba. digital and let them know that I sent you. Again, that is Tamba, T A M B A. digital.   📍    First of all, France's overseas empire was basically gone. At every step of the way, Britain had been able to erode France's overseas colonies because the British navy was so far superior to not only France's navy, but Everyone, almost everyone combined in the world.

This was especially true after 1805 and the battle of Trafalgar. If you want to learn more about that, go listen to my Horatio Nelson episodes.  At the same time that Nelson was,

this was especially true after 1805. Why? Well, because at that time, this is especially true after 1805. At this, this is especially true after 1805.  In 1805, at the time that Napoleon was marching around the Austrians to win the Battle of Ulm, the British naval hero, Horatio Nelson, was obliterating the French Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar.

This effectively meant the end of the French ability to challenge the British at sea. They had never been able to win at sea, but at least they could stretch the British Navy and make them work for it, essentially. They could blockade every  And make them work for it. They didn't have the naval capacity to attack every single, they didn't have the naval capacity to attack every single French colony at the same time.

Now they did. They could blockade every French port with near impunity. This cut off important revenues for France and greatly expanded British abilities to make money overseas.  The British were blockading nearly all French trade. Napoleon's response was to attempt to turn the tables on them.  Napoleon's thought, and I have to admit it seems pretty rational, is, well, if they're going to cut off trade outside of Europe, to me, I'll cut off trade for the British inside of it.

And so he developed something called the Continental System, and this is what he was trying to get Russia to adopt. And in it, he tries to get everyone to agree not to trade with the British. European trade is to be totally cut off for them. Of course, Europe was a huge market for them, and the intention was to bring them to their knees economically and force them to make peace.

Well, the problem for Napoleon is you have to shut down all of Europe. If there's even one crack, one port where they can smuggle their goods in, then the goods just start pouring into Europe from there.  Napoleon is trying to get everyone into the system, but there are cracks from the very beginning.  The first place where there are major cracks, and the British are trading extensively, is in Portugal.

And all these British goods are coming into Portugal and then through Spain to the rest of Europe.

And so it makes Napoleon mad that all of these goods are coming through Spain, who was supposed to be an ally of France's. Spain had been un, Spain had been an unreliable ally of France's for years. The main problem is, they were flat broke. So they couldn't really send any soldiers to help in Napoleon's wars.

And so Napoleon decides to do something about this, and he basically takes over Spain. First, he marches across Spain to invade Portugal, and then once his troops are already in, and then once his troops are already there, he forces the abdication of the Spanish king, and puts his brother Joseph on the throne.

He doesn't have a very hard time taking Spain, but keeping it is a different matter. You may have heard the term guerrilla warfare, and if you've ever wondered where that came from, it's actually Spanish, guerrilla, and it means little war, and the term originates from this war. Many Spanish are not happy about being invaded, and so they start,

and they're not happy about the French, you know, the French are seen as liberal and very atheistic, they're seen as anti Catholic, And Spain had this self image as the most Catholic country in Europe. They were very attached to religion and tradition. So, many Spaniards really hated the French when they invaded.

And so, the invasion at first wipes out all their major forces. They can't put together an army, but They start doing guerrilla warfare.

They're laying ambushes, taking pot shots from behind trees, intercepting messages, raiding supply lines, so on and so forth.  And so they pin down a ton of French forces without allot. And so they pin down French forces and make it really difficult and cause a lot of attrition in this way. They sap French strength considerably over the next few years.

 The primary feeling you get from Napoleon towards Spain during this time is, I would phrase it as disrespect. The primary feeling you get from Napoleon, at least that I get, when you think about how he interacted with Spain, He's disrespect. He completely disrespected them. He did not take them seriously.

The abdication of the Spanish King, it's actually the King and his son, he gets both of them to abdicate. And it's a total sham, a complete farce, very insulting to the Spanish, the way it's carried out. He does it with basically no consideration to how they might feel. He's basically like, I can dictate terms to you.

Yeah, it's very obviously me just taking the kingdom from these people, but what are you going to do about it?  And this causes just a ton of resentment amongst the Spanish people. His brother Joseph was not a widely respected leader. And while Joseph was a gifted diplomat who had helped his brother in the past, he had shown himself feckless when in independent command.

So Napoleon should have known that he was not ready to be the king of Spain.  After the initial invasion, Napoleon did not command his forces in person, leaving the war to his subordinates. Which is another way that he shows that this didn't seem important to him or didn't seem serious to him  in all matters.

Napoleon underestimated the Spanish and to his great detriment, Spain came to be known as the bleeding ulcer.  And it wasn't just Spanish guerrillas that he had to worry about. The British sent an army under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, to Portugal to assist in the war there.

The British army was too small to face the French head on, but they set up a huge defensive fortification around the peninsula that represents the larger Lisbon area.

Behind these fortificat behind these fortifications, they could keep the resistance alive, and if the French failed to place sufficient forces there, they could always sally out and perform damaging lightning attacks.

And the Peninsular War, as it would come to be known, because it's the Peninsula, the Iberian Peninsula with Spain and Portugal, would sap resources from the Empire at a time when it could not afford it. The French would suffer over 400, 000 dead, wounded, or captured by the end of this Peninsular War.

They would sink millions of dollars worth of gold into the campaign. And it would divert much needed talent and leadership at a time when they were needed elsewhere.  Now, part of this was not Napoleon's fault. The alliance, the alliance of England and Portugal was the oldest alliance in the world. It was always likely that the British, it was always likely that the British would leverage them to cause problems for the French.

But the Spanish element of this quagmire was unnecessary. I think this is really when you start to see Napoleon's decision making unravel. Perhaps Austerlitz really had gotten to him. He believed himself unbeatable. and wasn't putting the same care into his decisions. He was simply charging forward, trusting that fate would make all his pursuits work out, and trusting that the inertia of the empire was so great now that it couldn't be resisted.

And maybe the very size of the empire is the reason that his decision making starts to deteriorate. Maybe the empire was simply too big to govern. If Spain had been the only fire he had to put out, if he'd been able to devote the same attention to it that he had devoted to Italy only a few years previously, maybe he could have dealt with it just as efficiently.

So maybe Napoleon is starting to make poor decisions because there's just too much to do, too much to govern, too much even for his incredible mental faculties and this incredible,

and this incredible managerial apparatus that he had built around him.  There is one other theory for why Napoleon started to lose his touch around 1809 to 1810. There are some people who view Napoleon's wife, Josephine, as his good luck charm. And that relationship was about to end.  Josephine might have been a good match for Napoleon when he was an up and coming artillery officer, but she was hardly the kind of match that you would expect for an emperor.

And even more importantly, Josephine was by now in her early 40s. They had been married for more than 10 years, and she had never been pregnant during that time.  It was clear that she would never produce an heir for him. And this was starting to become really important. It was in the front of everyone's minds.

If anything happens to Napoleon, who's going to come next? Who's going to inherit this huge empire? And so in 1809, Napoleon set out looking for a new wife.  He ended up settling on the young Marie Louise, the eldest child of the Emperor of Austria.  The Austrians had been beat up by Napoleon many times.

Most recently, in 1809, Austria had tried to take advantage of Napoleon's preoccupation in Spain by declaring war on him again. You get the, you get the idea that these people just cannot learn that they're never gonna beat Napoleon. He beats them every single time. And Napoleon is kind of tired of this, so he imposes a very harsh peace on them, taking away all of their ports and 20 percent of their population.

With such punitive measures, there was always the fear that Austria is not going to be content with being relegated to a second rate power, and so they would try and rise up against him in the future.  Marrying the emperor's daughter was a good way to keep the Austrians dynastically tied to him. Francis, the emperor of Austria, was a lot more likely to accept his decreased power and the increased power of France if his grandson would one day sit on its throne.

The match with Marie

The marriage with Marie Louise was also a good match from a personality standpoint. Marie Louise was young, intelligent, and pretty, and though they wouldn't really find this out until after they got married, she got along well with Napoleon. She never captured his passion and enthusiasm the way Josephine had in those early years, but she would be a good and steady companion for him.

And so, on January 10th, 1810, Napoleon divorced Josephine, and four months later, he married Marie Louise.

Napoleon and Josephine had had a very complicated relationship. It was at first both very passionate and very tumultuous. As time went on, that passion subsided somewhat, though it never completely faded. But what took its place was a partnership. Josephine truly was a master. So the kind of person that knows just what to say to settle someone down or to bring them into a group and make them feel a part of the party.

She's very good at  years of experience had honed her abilities as an informal diplomat. Napoleon frequently used her to win people over, gain their confidence, acquire valuable intelligence, and subtly shift their thinking. She, and and she could often be even more effective than an actual diplomat because this was all very informal, right?

People's guards weren't up when they talked to her.  And this was not the relationship of a taskmaster and his servant. She frequently gave Napoleon advice, offered ideas, acted as a sounding board, and was an important confidant for him.  I don't want to exaggerate her role in the recent movie about Napoleon.

Um,

I don't want to exaggerate her role. She wasn't a government official. She didn't have the level of input of the closest advisors on a day to day basis. And yet she was a very important partner for Napoleon in his governance in. In his governance, in his work, and in his personal life.  Oddly, the divorce in some ways strengthened their relationship.

Maybe it took off some of the pressure that was felt, uh, in this romantic relationship. Napoleon made sure that she retained some of their royal property and was taken well care of, with a generous government pension, and they continued to speak and write frequently.  But of course, you do lose something when someone goes from being a wife to an ex wife.

So did Napoleon lose his good luck when he divorced Josephine? Is that the reason that his decision making seemed to deteriorate at the same moment?

Well, as romantic and interesting as that notion might be. I don't think it's the case. I think Napoleon's problems came from more boring sources. His continental system, that economic blockade on Britain, was hugely unpopular, impossible to enforce, and driving him broke. Smuggling was widespread, but even so, it was a primary contributor.

It was not observed by many, many people. Smuggling was widespread, but even with it not really being enforced, it was still a primary contributor to rebellions that popped up all over the French Empire. People hated it. And the empire was struggling in other ways. It was overextended, over centralized, and difficult to administer.

And difficult and expensive to administer.

The destruction of the French navy meant that the British could strike Napoleon at any number of locations while being completely impervious to him. The destruction of the French navy meant that the British could strike Napoleon at any number of locations while being completely impervious to an attack from the French.

And Napoleon's character was belligerent by nature. He was always pushing for more. It's part of what made him great.  He could also be vindictive, and this made it difficult for him to make peace with those who he thought had betrayed him in any way.  All of these things would come into play in his downfall.

And I think all of them were more important than his relationship with Josephine.

You know, despite all of these things working against Napoleon, you can understand his frustration that he must have felt. He had demonstrated time and time again that he was the greatest man of his age. No one could stand up to him in battle. He had won again and again and again. You think about the Austrians.

He beat them in Italy, went to Egypt, came back, beat them again in Italy, beats them at Ulm, beats them at Austerlitz, they declare war on him again, he beats them again. It's like, why won't you people get it? And I think that's the way he felt about the entire world. Like, why won't you people get it? I can't be beat.

Everywhere he had gone, he had made the,

and not just, he couldn't be beat, but why did you want to beat him? Everywhere he had gone, he had made government and administrations more efficient, more rational, more standardized, more modern.  

In his eyes, he had a destiny. That's something he believed in so strongly. Destiny. He had a destiny as the next great man of Europe. The next Charlemagne. The next Caesar. And he had done so much. to realize that destiny. Why were so many people being so stubborn in refusing to see that? He's thinking, I've beaten Europe's three greatest empires, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, repeatedly.

I've beaten them separately. I've beaten them when they combined. And you, Spain? You guys are the ones that think you can do what they couldn't? I have brought every power in Europe to their knees. Britain is surely next, so why can't you all just get on board with me? Why can't you do what I'm asking you to do?

He was so close. And then, it seemingly all slipped away at once.

In 1811, the Russians began refusing to enforce the continental system.  It was hard on all of Europe economically, but it was especially hard on Russia. Russia is a long way from the rest of Europe when you're traveling on roads.  And therefore, most of their trade came not via land routes, but by the sea.

Trade with Britain was especially vital to them. And the imposition of the continental system was hugely unpopular in Russia.  They also started to get uncomfortable when Napoleon had taken land from Austria that was on their border. They felt like the French were getting awfully close to Russia itself.

Emperor Alexander of Russia and Napoleon, you know, had struck up this friendship at Tilsit, and Napoleon believed in the powers of his own charisma. He believed that they were still friends, and that this friendship that this friendship would have a calming, would have a calming effect on any conflict.

So even as things are heating up, he thinks, Alexander and I can sort this out.  But he was wrong about that.  It's difficult to figure out Alexander's psychology. He was an enigmatic man. But for one reason or another, he had turned hard against Napoleon. He had come to loathe him. And he was willing to burn Russia to the ground in order to see Napoleon defeated.

But Napoleon didn't know this. He thought that a simple show of force might be enough to bring the conflict to a speedy end, get Alexander back at the negotiating table, re implement the continental system,  get everything simpatico.  Napoleon's army was huge, one of the largest ever assembled. And it had issues.

Napoleon's army was huge. One of the largest ever assembled. So, does Russia really think they can stand up against that? It was an international affair. Not just the French,  the Dutch, many German states, Italians, Poles, people from all over the empire were a part of this army.

Unfortunately, it had issues right from the very beginning. Russia was a very different place from Germany and Italy, where Napoleon had conducted so many of his campaigns in the past.  Those areas had plenty of well-built roads.

Those areas had plenty of well-built roads and were chock-full of fertile farmlands, orchards, towns, and cities that could be rated for supplies. By contrast, Russia was sparsely populated and full of thick forests where food was hard to come by.  The campaign started in the,  the campaign started in the stifling summer months.

Men frequently went hungry, got sick, and were missing supplies. The situation was worse for the horses lacking grassland or hay for them to feed on. Hundreds of horses died within the first few months of the campaign. This created further issues, as there weren't enough horses to transport the cannons and supplies for the army.

Nevertheless, the French were able to push forward, and the Russians were forced to retreat deeper and deeper into their territory.

As they went, the Russians went scorched earth. They burned any supplies, they looted towns, they made sure that there was nothing for the French to use as they came further and further into Russia.  Finally, they gave battle at a town just outside of Moscow called Borodino.

It was the most brutal battle of the Napoleonic Wars. Over 70, 000 men lost their lives in a single day of hard fighting in wet, muddy conditions.  Technically, it was a French victory since they possessed the battlefield at the end of the day, but the men were so exhausted that they failed to follow up the victory with a  Technically, it was a French victory since they possessed the battlefield at the end of the day, but the men were so exhausted that they failed to follow up the victory and strike a knockout blow against the Russian army.

Which were treated in good order.  

This was actually an error on the part of Napoleon who was uncharacteristically sluggish. He did have some fresh troops who he could have sent after the Russians. Not many, but some. But for once, he overestimated his enemy. He thought the Russians were retreating in better order than they were and could offer some resistance to a pursuit, when in reality they couldn't.

And I said Napoleon was uncharacteristically sluggish, but actually, this sluggishness was becoming more and more characteristic all the time. In the past couple of years, he had gone from lean, to portly, to fat. Napoleon was almost never sick, but he had caught a cold before Borodino, which turned into a cough so severe that he was having trouble breathing, and a bladder infection.

I think it's likely that this poor health contributed to his poor decision making. And after Borodino, the French And  And I think it's likely that this poor health contributed to his poor decision making.  After Borodino, the French were able to march into Moscow, which they were shocked to find completely abandoned.

The Russians had vacated their capital, and retreated into Siberia rather than surrendering to the French. This was completely unthinkable to Napoleon,  and he could never imagine abandoning Paris and fighting on from somewhere else.  He could never, he could never imagine abandoning Paris to his enemies,  he could never imagine abandoning Paris to his enemies.

So he couldn't believe that the Russians were doing the, were doing the, equivalent.  

This decision shocked Napoleon. He didn't know what to do. He vacillated in Moscow, unsure whether to retreat or to make winter quarters in the Russian capital.  Ultimately he decided to retreat, but too late weeks of wavering had allowed the Russian winter to sneak up on him.   📍  The retreat from Moscow reads like a horror movie.

The weather was freezing. The men had no food, and for the entire retreat, they were hunted by Russian cossacks who would raid the French columns  If a horse fell, men seized upon it and began carving it up for meat before it was even dead every morning.

Hundreds of men simply didn't wake up, frozen to death by the cold of the night.  The Russians who followed them found encampments that looked like battlefields. Here's how one described it.

if a horse fell. Men seized upon it and began carving it.  The French army's every bivouac and encampment was like the terrifying sight of the battlefield, where thousands lay dying in great agony. And so the warriors who perhaps survived Austerlitz, Eylau, and Borodino now easily fell into our hands. They were in a state of trance, so that every Cossack captured and brought back dozens of them.

They could not comprehend what was happening around them, could not remember or understand anything. The roads were littered with their corpses, and they lay abandoned and without any attention inside every hut.  Napoleon left with about a half a  Napoleon had gone into Russia with about a half million men, and when he returned, he only had about 40, 000.

 Now, these remaining 40, 000 troops did not represent the full strength of the French army. But, everyone now smelled blood in the water.  When Napoleon returned defeated from Russia, he faced a united coalition of nearly all of Europe. The sixth Coalition eventually came to include Russia, Austria, Prussia, great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and most of Germany.

I mean, it was everyone. Everyone in Europe.  He was actually initially victorious against the armies, sent against him. He gathered up a new army from France and was able to beat this pan European coalition. But he was, once again, lethargic and indecisive in the follow up.

Rather than following up his victories and aggressively apprying pre Rather than following up his victories and aggressively applying pressure to his enemies, he agreed to a temporary ceasefire, during which time the coalition went and recruited even more allies. Napoleon actually continued to score a number of victories.

The emergency of the situation seemed to shake him out of his stupor. But at the Battle of Leipzig, he was finally defeated by a far superior force. Though he, though he was able to retreat in good order. The coalition offered him peace terms. France would give up Italy, Germany, Poland, and Spain. But Napoleon would stay Emperor of France, and France would still maintain enlarged borders that included Belgium and the Rhineland.

But Napoleon, still believing he could win, rejected this offer.

In retrospect, it was a huge missed opportunity.  After the situation grew more desperate, peace was once again offered to him, this time along what was called France's natural borders. This is more or less what corresponds to the borders of the France that we know today. But Napoleon could not accept this.

By this point he knew he was going to lose, but he believed, or at least he said he believed, that the French people would not allow him to stay on the throne in such a diminished state. Glory was the entire justification for his rule. If he could not give France victory and glory, then what was the point of all of this?

The funny thing is that, through all of this, Napoleon continued to win battle after battle. It was just that he was so outnumbered that it didn't matter.  His chief rival, the British general Arthur Wellesley, also known as the Duke of Wellington, said of this time period, quote, The 1814 campaign has given me a greater idea of his genius than any other.

Had he continued that system a little longer, it is my opinion that he would have saved Paris.  Napoleon was always better with a small, fast, highly mobile army. But,

but he can't keep it up. There are just too many enemies. You know, he'll win one battle, and as he's winning it, another army is going around him and marching towards Paris, so he has to race to  so he has to race to catch, to catch them, and then he beats them, and then another army is marching on Paris. They go around him, and eventually lay siege to Paris, at which point, the French force him to abdicate.

The Bourbons, the kings before the French Revolution, are invited to return to France, and Napoleon is exiled to a small island off the coast of France called Elba. He is technically allowed to keep the title of emperor. He is, farcically, the Emperor of Elba.

While on Elba, he's under British supervision, and he does his usual thing. From the Roberts biography again, quote, He grew avenues of mulberry trees, reformed customs and excise, repaired the barracks, built a hospital, planted vineyards, paved roads on Porto

paved port paved parts of the Porto Ferraio for the first time, and irrigated land, organized regular rubbish collections, set up a court of appeal, and an inspectorate Set up a court of appeal and set up a court of appeal and an inspectorate to widen roads and build bridges.  But after a year, he's going crazy.

It's too small of a sandbox. He's also seeing that the bourbons are hugely unpopular. They're  gosh,  but after a year, he's going crazy. This is just too small of a sandbox for him to play in. He's also seeing that the bourbons are bungling, their return.  been back for less than a year, and they are already hugely unpopular.

And, Napoleon is personally upset at some of the actions that they have taken, specifically against his family. The Bonaparte family estates are seized, which Napoleon is very offended by. I guess he thought the new French government would allow his family to keep their property and fortunes, which he considered acquired very legitimately in service to the French nation.

So when he sees a narrow window to escape from Elba, he does so and goes back to France.  His return to France is a mean it. His return to France is amazing in its own way. He's

his return to France is amazing in its own way. He has no plan. He has no forces. When he arrives, he just heads to a military base and through sheer force of will and personality manages to convince the soldiers that he's back and they should follow him. There's a, actually a very famous incident when troops sent by the bourbons.

Are given the orders to arrest him and shoot him if necessary. And so  come to each other on the road and they point their guns at him. And he opens up his arms and says, are you going to shoot your emperor?  And the men put down their guns and say, you  know, long live the emperor and, and make up and start following him.

And this just carries on. And this force grows and grows and grows. He goes from military base to military base,  up soldiers and amassing an army as he goes.  The Bourbon king and queen of France, flee,  and he takes power once again in Paris.  

All the usual actors declare war on him again, and Napoleon realizes that there's no way he's going to win, uh, a sort of Mano a mano, and Napoleon realizes that there's no way he's going to win a full on war against all these different powers. He thinks his only chance to maintain,  he thinks his only chance to maintain power in France is to go out and strike a crushing victory very quickly and then try and come to a peace agreement.

Basically say, look,  I still got some fight in me. Look at this big crushing victory I just scored. Isn't it better if we just have peace now? I'm gonna be cool now, guys. Let's just make some peace. And so he leads out an attack. On British forces, uh, combined with Prussian forces who are in the area and they meet at the notorious and famous, and they meet in modern day Belgium, uh, at the notorious and famous battle of Waterloo,

as you probably know, if you know anything about history, Napoleon loses at Waterloo, he's crushed. And what's most surprising is that he displays none of the characteristic trademarks of Napoleonic leadership. He's lethargic, his tactics are straightforward and unoriginal, his battle plan is basically.

Charged straight at them. He divides his forces rather than concentrating them the night before the battle, something he never did. And something that flies in the face of his core strategy is difficult to say why exactly.

And this follows a trend that had been going on for years now of deteriorating leadership and decision making. And once again, people speculate on why exactly it was that his decision making crumbled so much. And there are all these theories, you know, his physical health was failing, uh, he had hemorrhoids, which made it difficult for him to stay on horseback and scout the ground.

He hadn't had a solid night's sleep in about six days. He may have had the flu. Some say he was just getting old. No one really knows. I do think a big part of it is, you know, he had this entire system. That facilitated his thinking and that system

and that system was now gone, you know, he had only been gone for a year. There was this discontinuity. There was this rupture in the system. And so, um, and so he couldn't, to borrow a phrase that we used earlier, move at the speed of thought, right? Everything went slowly. Everything was hard.

But you know, all these theories, I think the best thing to do is take Napoleon at his own word. He said, quote, I sensed that fortune was abandoning me. I no longer had in me the feeling of ultimate success. And if one is not prepared to take risks when the time is ripe, one ends up doing nothing.  So, he's beaten.

And this time the British exile him to the island of St. Helena, which has been described as further from anywhere than anywhere else in the world.

It's in the middle of the Atlantic, uh, between Africa and South America, and it really is incredibly remote. There would be no chance of escape now.   📍  On St. Helena, he writes some. He befriends the British commander of the local garrison and his family. He continued to read and receive a few visitors who were able to make their way out to the most remote He continued to read and receive a few visitors who were able to make their way out to the most remote place in the world.

And after about six years, he dies of stomach cancer.  Just as a comet appeared over Ayatio at his birth, there was another comet seen in the sky shortly  📍 before his death.  His last fevered, barely coherent words were, France. The army. The head of the army. Josephine.  And there, our story ends.

  So what are some of the lessons that we can learn from Napoleon? From his downfall, I think we can learn that it is important to stand for something.  The biographer, Michael Broers says that  the biographer, Michael Broers says that quote ambition ruled Napoleon,  a contemporary said of him, quote, unless Napoleon's ambition to which every other consideration was sacrificed, interfered, he was possessed of much sensibility and feeling, and was capable of strong attachment.

In other words, he could be a really good friend unless it got in the way of his ambition and all other considerations were sacrificed to that ambition. I think that's such a strong and powerful statement about who Napoleon was,  every other consideration was sacrificed to his ambition.

Napoleon was a complicated man with many competing ideas and impulses. A lot of people want to distill him down to just one thing, but he wasn't, he was complicated and he was very human. But I do think it's true what Michael Brewer said. Ultimately, all of those other impulses were repressed if they came into conflict with his ambition.

Napoleon truly was a liberal minded person.  Napoleon truly was a liberal minded person who believed in the high minded ideals of the Enlightenment. He implemented many liberal minded reforms, but he freely disposed of those ideas. If they came into conflict with that ambition,  I don't think he saw,  I don't think he saw it quite so cynically Napoleon was pragmatic.

He wanted things to work and I think he rationalized it as well. The best way for things to work is for me to be in charge,

but ultimately, I mean, come on, there is some element of rationalization in that I don't think there is some element of rationalization in that. He was  just ambitious. I don't think people fully grasp the extent to which he was trying to um,  I don't think people fully grasp the extent to which he was trying to emulate and ultimately out compete Julius Caesar.

You know, all these greats from the past, but especially Julius Caesar.  I'm gonna describe someone to you, okay?  Just listen to the description of this man.  

He made his name as a young general with military victories in France. He then invaded Italy. He became consul, and later became emperor. He was the ruler of a republican government, and many people were uncomfortable with his monarchical tendencies. He invaded Egypt, and excited the public imagination with his tales of this exotic and faraway land.

He was not only a great general, but a great writer who was a He was not only a great general, but a great writer who was able to excite the public imagination with his missives.  Everything I just said, this description, could perfectly describe Napoleon, of course, or Julius Caesar. I mean, their lives are eerily similar.

Napoleon was obsessed with Plutarch's lives. And that's this book of all of these classical biographies. You know, You know, short, short, basically episodes of How to Take Over the World. Short, short biographies of,  short biographies on great Greeks and Romans in the past, uh, with lessons to learn from their lives.

And if you want to learn more about Plutarch's lives, Go and listen to the excellent podcast, The Cost of Glory, by my friend Alex Petkus. That is what he does, and he does an excellent job. But this competition with the ancients is part of what fueled his personal ambition. If he had been better able to articulate what he believed in, if he had seemed more like the leader of a movement, if he had seemed more liberal, frankly, I think he would not have had so many problems with resistance to his rule.

But the fact that it seemed not like a movement, not something you could get behind and believe in, but the pragmatic rule of one man,  Made it easy to be jealous of him, made it easy to be resentful, made it easy to be resentful of all this power that he had acquired.  Another lesson that we can learn from his fall is something that we read in Machiavelli's The Prince, who wrote,  People should either be caressed or crushed.

If you do them minor damage, they will get their revenge. But if you cripple them, there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.  Napoleon had to return to fight the same enemies over and over and over again. He ought to have eliminated the Austrian and Prussian monarchies entirely.

He could have broken them up and ruled over smaller states, as he did so successfully in the Confederation of the Rhine. Though, of course, those were states that were amalgamated, not broken down. But in any case, Napoleon too frequently grievously injured his opponents without truly crippling them. Even though he had the opportunity to do so.

And so I do think that's a lesson. That if you have to offend someone, if you have to beat them,  if you have to injure them, do it in such a way that they can never strike back at you. Otherwise, leave them alone and be careful not to offend.  Okay, well what are some of the more positive lessons that we can learn from Napoleon?

We can learn from his boundless energy. And the question arises, where does that energy come from? I think on a certain level, it comes from doing what you love. Remember, he was depressed.

We can learn from his boundless energy. And where does that energy come from? I think on a certain level, it comes from doing what you love. Remember, he was depressed when he was taken away from active duty. He loved leading men into battle that gave him energy. And so even though we think of him as an energetic person, there were circumstances under which he didn't even bathe, he was slovenly, he moved slowly.

And so finding the thing that you love can help give you that energy,  and can help give you that energy. And I think that's really important. But I think it was also a biological phenomenon. He was an extremely energetic person.

And once his body started to fail him, there went his energy. Once he got fat and sick, he was no longer the same energetic, decisive commander. So I think it's important to get your body right if you want to be an energetic leader. I think partially, it is just a biological phenomenon.

I think we can learn from Napoleon's impatience. Even when ahead of schedule, he wanted things done faster. I think we can learn from his luck. That good luck came from his aggression. Fortune favors the bold. But most of all, I think Napoleon lived a beautiful life.  He was at heart an artist, a painter. The fields of Marengo and Jena and Rivoli and Austerlitz were his canvases.

Human blood was his paint.  And the cost of his art was terrible,  and you might not consider it worth it, and maybe it wasn't. But it was beautiful in its way.

 Alright, that's it. I'm going to have more takeaways and a lot more information in my Endnotes episode that I will be releasing soon. Okay, that's it. I'm going to have more takeaways and a lot more information in my Endnotes episode that I will be releasing soon, though of course that will be for subscribers only.

I'll put out the first 10 minutes if you want to hear that, but if you want to hear, um, my random floatsome and jetsome thoughts from the life of Napoleon, uh, you can go to the link in the show notes and subscribe. I'll talk about Napoleon's first love and why that represented a totally different path he could have taken in life.

I'll talk about his various affairs. The French discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the background of Corsica and how that informed who he was, how he was able to move so easily between committed liberal and enlightened despot. I'll talk more about his aphorisms and his quotes. Napoleon is one of the most quotable peop  Napoleon is one of the most quotable Napoleon is one of the most quotable leaders of all time.

He has some great quotes. So I'll get more into that. There will be a lot of good stuff. So I hope you tune in.

Again, if you want to subscribe to get that episode and all other end notes episodes, go to the link in the show notes and sign up. The URL is takeoverpod. supercast.  com. Until next time, thank you for listening to how to take over the  📍 world.

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