Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #48 - Napoleon's Empire of Myth

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #48 - Napoleon's Empire of Myth

Okay, so good morning. Today we finished the French Revolution Trilogy. So we are focusing on Napoleon today. And my argument to you today is that Napoleon would not have been possible about Ropes PR. Okay, so to illustrate this point, let us do a thought experiment. I am going to present to you two individuals. Okay. And I want you to think about who is the greater genius. the greater genius, who is the more rare leader? Okay, so let's look at person A.

Person A has a perfect memory. That's the first characteristic. He is able to have instant recall. He or she is able to absorb all the information that comes, here's her away, and is able to retain it, okay? Second thing is the ability to have priorities. So what's weird among really smart people is the capacity to prioritize what is important information

and what is not important information to filter things out. Okay, because once you have the important information, you are much more capable of making the correct decisions. All right. The third thing is the strategic imagination. So in general is able to take, all the relevant information that he or she has obtained and then imagine the

battlefield across multiple nations. He or she is able to imagine how the battle will progress. And the fourth is the idea of flexibility. So even though the general has a plan, he or she is still flexible during the battle. So if the battle's not going to going on a plan, then he or she will make adjustments to the battlefield because he or she has total battlefield awareness. Okay? So these are the four characteristics of a great leader. Now, let's say that B. And B only does one thing.

B is, I promote the talented. That's all B does. cares about so who among these two individuals do you think is the more rare individual the greater leader a stronger genius a or B okay so obviously it's a trick question okay it's obviously B right and so what I'm going to do today is explain why it's B because A is Napoleon like Alexander the Great like Julius Caesar is a genius of war. He's able to completely imagine the battlefield and come up with strategies

that are shocking, innovative, and unique. That's Napoleon. B is RopesP.R. All Ropes P.R. All Ropes P.R. Cures about is promoting and rewarding those who are true and loyal to the revolution. Okay? So I'm making, today I will make the argument that Ropes Pierre is the greater men than Napoleon. So to illustrate this point, I want to ask you a question, okay? Let's just say that I'm a very rich man, maybe I'm Jack Ma, and I have a huge company. I employ thousands of workers, I'm extremely profitable, I have a son, he's 18 years old, and he's expecting to inherit my company at 40, 50, okay? But I say to my son, I sit him down, I have a very long dinner conversation with him.

I explain to him, son, it takes a particular type of person to run a great company. It takes dedication, it takes virtue, it takes selflessness. You're a great person. I love you because you're my son. But you're not qualified to run my company. I have a team of experts who will replace me after I'm dead. I'm sorry, son, but you have to go do something else, okay? quite honestly I don't think you would even enjoy running my company okay so that's a

thought experiment right now let me ask you this question China has one billion people would there be anyone in China who would think I'm a good father no one okay that's why B is hard because B requires a selflessness but not only that but B requires the capacity to ignore social values and focus on what is good by itself. Okay? That's why B is harder than A. And quite frankly, A, in history,

we'll meet a lot of individuals like that. Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler. Even today, there are quite a few individuals like A, but B is rare, all right? So let me explain why B is so rare and why Rose Pier was fundamental to the of Napoleon. All right, so we're going to focus on a battle.

This is 1805, Austerlitz. This is considered Napoleon's greatest battle, okay? The battle that made Napoleon into a legend. This is something called the War of the Third Coalition. So Napoleon, the French, are up against three major nations, right? The Austrians, the Russians, and the British. The Persians will come in at some point to join the French. third coalition. So Napoleon needs to act first and knock out both Russian

Austria before the pressure is come in because pressure is considered at this point the greatest military in the world. All right so this is Auschwitz, the battlefield. Let me first give you an overview of what the battlefield looks like. First of all you have the coalition forces stationed on high ground, okay? These are about 70,000 troops. Napoleon is scattered, okay? He's got his forces here and he's got his forces here on the right this is a right and these are his main forces okay this is Napoleon he also has about 70,000 troops so they look even but actually the coalition forces have a huge advantage one because they're

on high ground okay second is that they are coming more forces are coming in from behind to to bolster the forces all right so it looks in the beginning like the coalition forces will overwhelm Napoleon okay but and so what the know the coalition forces are going to do is this they see the right flank Napoleon it's weak so what they will do is they will send a right attack and overwhelm the right and then come behind Napoleon and then the other forces will come down to envelop Napoleon. This is what we call it a flanking attack. So that is the plan and quite honestly

this is the most logical, the most reasonable strategy given the circumstances. What they don't know is this. Napoleon anticipates that they will do this. It's a trap actually. Okay, because what's going to happen is that as they come in an attack, Napoleon will now attack the coalition's right flank, and as the coalition tries to muster the right flank, the cavalry will come in and split the coalition into two, forcing them to retreat. Okay, that is the master plan. The problem with this plan is the right flank. The right flank needs to hold against the coalition attack, otherwise the coalition will just

sweep in and outflank Napoleon. Napoleon has this plan where coming in to bolster the right flank is his marshal de Beau with 10,000 men okay the problem though is that the vo is 100 kilometers away so it has to be a really quick march to the right flank okay now if he misses the coalition will just wipe out this army but he does get here in time he says the right flank and then the rest of the plan goes exactly according to Napoleon's vision, his strategy. It is perfect. Perfect timing, perfect attack. Everything is perfect. And as a result,

this is exactly what happens. Napoleon splits the coalition into two. They're forced to retreat. And then what will happen is that Napoleon will sweep in and capture this entire army. Once this happens, the war is over. The Russians and the Austrians are forced to retreat. The Austrian suit for peace. The Russians go home. So this is considered one of the greatest battles in human history. It is up there with acts on the great battles.

This is considered the defining achievement of Napoleon. And there are certain characteristics about this battle that make it uniquely Napoleon. The first is total battlefield. awareness. That's the first thing. He is able to imagine an entire battlefield even before this battle starts. He knows exactly where each unit will be. So total battle awareness is what makes Napoleon unique. What also makes Napoleon unique at this time is the idea of speed. This all happens very, very fast. At this time in Europe, battles are fought slowly and it's really like two forces banging against each other okay but this is really fast and what

you have is a lot of maneuverability okay okay usually in the battlefield the army fights as one unit what's amazing about Napoleon is he's able to divide his forces into different smaller armies that operate independently but as part of a larger vision okay so our slit is the defining achievement of Napoleon's grand strategy of war And if you go to military college, if you want to be a general, you will have to study this war, this battle in great detail. All right. So the problem with this plan is that it should not have worked.

It is a reckless and stupid way to fight a battle. Because there are about 10,000 ways that could go wrong. First of all, you need this guy, the bull. You need this guy, DeVaux, to come in, he has to do about 110 kilometers in 48 hours. This was before considered impossible. A really strong army, really disciplined, really well trained, will do at most 20 kilometers in one day. Okay, think about that.

This is the best army in the world. The Russians will do 20 kilometers in one day. DeVot is able to do 110 kilometers in two days. All right and that just shows you how extremely disciplined the French are not only are they able to do 110 kilometers in 48 hours, but they come into the battlefield fresh for battle, okay? They jump straight in the battle and they are pushing the coalition forces back. So it's an incredible achievement by DeVos. In fact, if you study military history, you will see a lot of people argue that the Vaux was the far superior general to Napoleon because it takes a lot of skill to marshal your forces and organize in a way that they

will want to march that fast and not quick on a time okay so the first thing that must have happened is the vole had to come in time but you know what there could have been rain right he could have gotten lost an army could have come in and blocked his events all right so 10,000 things could have gotten wrong Napoleon was really lucky that these things didn't go wrong also in this attack by the French, it was possible that the coalition could have overwhelmed an attack. So in other words, the thing about Napoleon, that's really important, is, yes, his strategic genius is one thing. But what really matters is the officers under him.

He had a really talented bench of officers who were committed to, you know, and he was a really talented bench of officers who were committed to, the battle and they knew exactly what they had to do. Napoleon was the one with a vision. He was the one who had the courage and the bonus to attack, but it was they who executed the plan perfectly. And that's the defining characteristic of the Grand Army of Napoleon. So let me explain to you how this happened. How was it that the French was able to build Europe's greatest army during the French Revolution? All right, so let's compare the Prussians and the French. And the Prussians, again, are considered at this time in European history the greatest army ever. So they are run by the nobility, the officers, generals are nobility, and they are called the Yonkers.

This is very important. I want you guys to remember the term Yonkers. They are the elite of part society. They're the ones who will take Germany into World War I and World War II. They are the force behind Hitler. And they are considered the greatest warriors in European history at this time, the Yunkers. They are land and nobility. They have their land, and so they can focus completely on warfare.

And as time progresses, they become the greatest generals and officers of Europe at this time. Let's look at their soldiers. The soldiers come from three sources. The first is conscription. Conscription just means that you draft people from your nation to join the war. Second is volunteers. Why do people volunteer? Because you're often treated better in the military than you are in a nation.

If you are a soldier, the nobility can't beat the crap out of you for no reason. But if you're a peasant, the nobility can beat the crap out of you for no particular reason. And the third, which is the most controversial, are deserters. So the Prussians have a nasty reputation for arresting people who they believe ran away from other armies, like the French and British Army, and they are forced into the Prussian army. It's like basically prison. Now, they have a nasty reputation because a lot of these are deserters, actually not deserters, they just happen to be people from neighboring nations that the Prussians kidnap into their army. Okay? So you have these three main sources.

Now, the thing that makes the Prussian army unique in Europe is it actually has very strict requirements for joining the military. They have to be tall, basically. You have to be like 5'8. The average height was like 5.6 at this time in Europe. Napoleon himself was 5.7. You have to be 5.8. So Napoleon would not have been able to join the Prussian army. It's the tallest army in the world.

The Prussian king, Federer the Great, takes tremendous pride in how tall his warriors are. Okay, all right, so this extremely disciplined army but with this army comes three fundamental weaknesses okay, the first is they cannot afford to lose that many men, okay? These are extremely well-trained, they're extremely well-disciplined, they cannot afford to lose that many soldiers in battle, okay, that's the first problem. Second problem is they're extremely slow. Why are they slow? Because the officers like to live well.

So wherever they go, there's maybe like three or four different wagons that carry their food, carry their clothing, carry their servants. So this is a very slow army. But it's fine because every other army in Europe is slow as well. And so this creates a problem of inflexibility. The Prussians fight one way, and that's the only way they fight. They basically move up front and because of the discipline of their level. and because of the discipline of their soldiers, they overwhelm their enemy. They don't have that much flexibility in their army.

So these are the three fundamental weaknesses of the Prussian army. They cannot afford casualties. They're extremely slow, and their strategy is inflexible. But it's not a problem because every army in Europe suffers from the same problems. Now comes to French Revolution. The French Revolution in Robs Pier, takes charge of organization and personnel, hiring basically for the new French Revolution Army. And he makes radical changes to the French military.

The first is the idea of a meritocracy. So before, like every army, most of the French army, the officers generals, were of nobility that were appointed by the king. They were loyal to the king, and as such, Rosefier saw them as a threat, right? So he basically replaced the nobility with young men from the provinces who believed in the revolution. So at the beginning of revolution, about 85% of all officers French were nobility.

Five years later, it's about 3%. That's a huge, huge change, okay? One of these men that's recruited into the French military and promoted really fast is Napoleon. Napoleon by the age of 25 is a general, and that's unheard of at Europe at this time. But it's not just Napoleon. It's like dozens and dozens of really talented young men who are given opportunities, were given opportunities they would not have been given anywhere else. Also what's important for us to remember is that Napoleon himself is not French.

He's Corsican. He's a foreigner. But because of French Revolution, he's given these tremendous opportunities. All right, so that's the first thing. It's a meritocracy. Second thing is, it is total war. In other words, it is complete conscription. There are no volunteers.

There are no deserters. It's everyone must now join the army. army. So now France has almost this end supply of soldiers. And that gives the French three major advantages. The first is high casualties. They can actually afford now to lose a lot of men in battle. So the French are now willing to take risks that other armies are not able to take. For example, Austellus, right? Oscellus was a huge, huge gamble that paid out for the French. But they were able to do so because able to replenish the forces if need be. okay high casualties second is the idea of mobility speed all right so now you don't have any

you don't have any officers where you can travel really fast also your soldiers can just live off the land you don't have to feed them like great food they can just go and find berries or chickens to cook for themselves okay so they are able to travel at least three times as fast as their enemies that's an incredible advantage because even before the enemies are able to set up camp the friends have surrounded them and overwhelmed them okay this happens a lot during these wars so speed is the crucial factor and the third advantage is flexibility if you have an extremely dedicated army what you're able to do is you're able to divide them into different units called corpse okay this is no different from the Roman legion the

Roman Legion was the main tactic of the Roman army back in the old days. So what you do is to take a huge army, you divide them into small armies. And if they're able to travel really fast, what this army is able to do is really quickly surround the enemy. Okay? If you're showing the enemy, the enemy is dead. The biggest problem in war is being encircled. Because you've cut off their supply routes.

They don't know how to respond to encirclement. Okay, so the French for many years was just destroying the enemies because of these three factors. They're able to take high casualties, their speed, and their strategic flexibility in battle. Okay, and who created the system? Ropes peer created this system. Ropes peer. Not Napoleon, ropes pier. All right.

So, to give you an illustration of what the difference is, let's go to the year 1806. Okay. So the French have destroyed the officer. the Russians are in retreat, the Prussians come in the battle now, okay? And all of Europe is like, oh wow, the Prussians now have taken the battlefield. The Prussians are going to overwhelm the French because the French are just peasant recruits. The Prussians are tall, they're strong, they're fearless, they're going to destroy the French, okay? So for the first time since the revolution, the Prussians and the French meet in 1806.

Okay. It is a total and other analysis. and other annihilation, okay? Never before has Europe seen this. The French in 30 days wipes out the entire Prussian army. It is incredible to watch. Also, there's a very famous battle during this time where DeVos, he's a court leader,

and he gets lost, and he ends up fighting the entire Prussian army. Okay? You know about this battle, right? And he's out number two to one. He wins the battle. The vote is able to win out number two to one against the main Prussian army led by the king himself. Okay?

So this is a radical revolution in military affairs. The French, by using the system, is able to dominate Europe for most of Napoleon's ring. Okay? And what this does is, and this is really important, is this because of the, French are dominating the battlefield, it forces the other European powers to make fundamental changes to society. Because the French of the French Revolution, these sides are forced to become more liberal and democratic and open and progressive in order to defeat Napoleon. So after 1806, the pressures make a lot of major changes

to society. Okay. What they recognize is that our soldiers aren't enough. We need to change the fabric and structure of our society if we are to defeat Napoleon. Okay. So So they make two major changes. There's other changes, but there are two major changes. That is fundamental. The first is they abolish serfdom. Okay? Serfdom is basically like slavery, where the peasants are tied to the land.

And that's a majority of people. When you abolish serfdom, the advantage of that is now you can have more conscription. These princes are now able to come and become soldiers, because serfs are not allowed to be soldiers. So now your army, the numbers have increased. And so all the armies at this time Europe are increasing because they're allowing more people to join the military Okay, and the second which is most important is the middle class So before the French Revolution all of Europe was extremely structured certified society and really at the top

But because of Napoleon's victories The pressures allowed the middle class to join the civil service. That's fundamental. Okay, they are now activating the energy of the middle class and this allows for innovation it allows for more economic activity. And so 1806, even though the pressure is destroyed, it allows them to build the structures that will allow them to dominate all of Europe in about 50, 60 years' time, and eventually they'll become the dominant power

in Europe and the world, basically, before the beginning of World War I. And this is all possible because the Prussians lost to the French and they learned lessons from the French Revolution. That's why I keep on saying the French Revolution was a turning point in human civilization. Okay? So that is my main argument. Are any questions about this argument?

Okay, so serfdom, okay? All right, so the idea, the institution of serfdom, it's basically slavery, where peasants are tied to the land. They cannot lead the land. And this is important because, again, most of these societies are agricultural-based. or agricultural base so need people actually to work the land and as such your the majority of your population is not eligible for the military okay that does that make sense when you eliminate serfdom now every man is eligible for the military and as such you can replenish your forces and a lot of men want to join the military

because there's a lot better be a soldier than let's be a peasant right as a soldier you are given rights by the military okay because the military is a very powerful institution if you're soldier you can't be pulled around by anyone whereas it whereas if you're a peasant you're a serf you I mean you're like an animal okay so if you give people a choice we're not to join the military or be a serf they would choose to be a soldier even though there's a risk of death okay but with a soldier comes a possibility of social mobility and social respect which is not available to you if you are a sur. Good. Does that make sense? Great. That's right, that's

right. The ideology of the other period. Are those ideas, is it more of like a screen of cause that we're just a bunch of young men moving up in the world and this is our new identity as a teacher. Yeah, okay, that's a great question. Okay, so the beginning of the revolution, these revolutionaries were compelled by sort of a religious fever to die for the nation okay and Rope's Pierre became the role model because Ropes here sacrificed himself for for France but in 1804 what happens is Napoleon becomes emperor and once it becomes emperor everything changes because now you're not fighting for your nation you're fighting for your emperor and there are a lot of

French people who felt betrayed by Napoleon. So after 1804, this is really important. France is still the greatest military in the world, but it's basically a military cabal, okay, who run France. Napoleon is just the head of a group of generals who love war, who benefit from war.

And as such, France becomes a military nation where everyone's supporting the French military adventurism. And even though the French do win a lot of war, Eventually because you're an empire, you just exhaust everyone. But I will discuss this during the PBT, okay? All right, so thank you. All right. Any more questions before I go into the PBT?

Okay, all right. So one last point is why is Roos P.U.R. creating a meritocracy. The reason why he's creating a meritocracy is, remember, he's trying to create a new society. And there are a lot of threats to this new society. Obviously, the major threat is these foreign armies of the Prussians, the Austrians, the Spanish, who want to restore the Burbank monarchy. That's a major threat. Then you have these rebels, these peasants who want to restore the privileges of the Catholic Church.

That's also another major threat. But the main threat is actually the army itself, right? Because remember, 85% of the army is nobility. And there were actually a few times when the army want to march against the revolution. and restore the monarchy. And the generals didn't do that, even though they wanted to, because they were afraid that the soldiers would mutiny against them. So this is a huge problem for Robespier.

And that's why Robespiered the movement to replace nobles with ordinary men like Napoleon, which gives Napoleon an opportunity to rise within the ranks. Does that make sense? That's the logic of the revolution. all right all right so um let us now go into the details all this now that we've done an overview so sorry all right so the question we're looking at today is how did a nobody okay and this guy literally was a nobody he was from a from an island car corsica which was not even

french who was part of the french empire but it's not actually french um he grew up speaking french but in a very bad accent okay so people made fun of him in school His family was local nobility in Corsica, but they were poor. So this guy was literally nobody. And in only like, I don't know, like a decade, he became emperor of France, the French Empire, which at that time was the main power in Europe. So how is this possible? How did the nobody Napoleon become emperor of French?

So for us to understand this, remember what the French Revolution was. These three classes, we've been looking very closely at the French Revolution. at the French Revolution, and my argument to you is it was a religious crusade. The irony, of course, is the French Revolution was trying to remove religion from social life. But if you look at what actually happened to the French Revolution, it was the ultimate religious crusade where the people were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to build a new society based entirely on reason. Their new God was reason. another idea I want to remember is that mythologies are prophecies and prophecies are

plans of action okay so embedded in your subpoches on the mythologies of society in France at this time these mythologies included the stories of Jesus but also the stories of Exxon the Great and Julius Caesar Napoleon saw himself as the reincarnation of both Exxon the Great and Julius Caesar and he wanted to create a mythology that he was in fact the Messiah okay so these mythologies are there and Napoleon saw this as an opportunity in order for him to amass power for himself that was his main insight okay he was not a great general that is one of the major misconceptions out there he was not a great general who's not as good as

the Vaux was but he understood that the underlying framework for society are mythologies if you can control these mythologies you can control people you can become the emperor okay that was his major Revelation. All right, so three things to remember. Mythologies are part of the collective subconscious, okay? We are all in society governed by the mythology that we share together. That's the first idea. Second idea is that when collective subconscious, sorry, when collective consciousness,

authority breaks down, these mythologies begin to drive history. So when you remove your teachers, it doesn't mean no one's in charge, it just means that now these mythologies are in charge, okay? So think of the culture of revolution in China. You could remove these authority figures, but then your subconscious takes charge. And the third idea is certain individuals will act out the leading roles in these mythologies and capture the imagination and attention of everyone else. That's why Napoleon became emperor, because he saw that the French were looking for a messiah.

And he's like, I will become your Messiah. And he did that by acting it out, but pretending to be Examine the Great, but pretending to be Julius Caesar okay and I'll show you how later on okay so that's a mean idea we're looking at today all right and Napoleon himself said this okay this is a very famous quote that he said while he was in exile in Saint Helena okay so he's basically writing his memoirs he's reflecting on his life and he's not that perceptive he's not that bright but in this quote we see his plan his like like how it became emperor okay let's let's read this I saw the way to achieve all

my dreams. I would found a religion, right? He's not like, I'm not a general. I am a religious leader. I saw myself marching into Asia, mounted an elephant, a turban on my head. That is actually great. That's as a du is Caesar. And in my hand, a new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs. A Koran, a Bible. So that's what he saw. So he understood what the French Revolution really was. It was a crusade to bring reason into the world. And he would become the Mohammed, the Julius Caesar, that's the end of the Great, the Jesus that would achieve this crusade. Does that make sense? He understood this from the beginning, and that's why he was able to succeed.

Whereas Roe's peer, he may have understood this, but he refused to act out that role. All right. All right, so even in his beginning, the beginning of his career, he was focused on creating mythology himself. This is when he was first first, a general and was part of the Italian campaign and this is a mythology of him leading his warriors into battle okay this didn't really happen this way doesn't matter because he understood that what matters is how people perceive you the reality the underlying reality doesn't really matter so when he

was emperor he's focusing on a corner personality okay paintings of himself stories of himself that would become the official history. So a lot of stuff that we know about Napoleon, his victories, we have to be suspicious about, because he was so focused on creating a myth of himself. All right. So let's go over some details that we discussed. All right. So when Lou the 16 was in charge, the French army had a lot of problems. The first problem was you had too many generals. 5608 generals 480,000 men that's a lot of generals okay and the reason why they had these generals is they were friends of the king they were incompetent they were

necessary the king liked them and so the king promoted them right it was a way to ensure the nobility was loyal to you but that made for a top heavy bureaucracy that didn't allow for innovation and change okay so that's the first problem Second problem is 85% are nobles, harsh discipline, soldiers didn't want to fight, they were forced to fight. No conscription, volunteer army, basically deserters, one-third would desert every year. One-third of soldiers would run away every year. So that's why this army is problematic, okay? And that's why the Prussians, the English would defeat the French in many battles before the revolution.

All right. So this man is named Carnot, and he is actually a friend of Rose Peers. They became friends when Roeb's Pier was in his provincial town of Eres. They've known each other for a long, long time. And when Roos Pier became prominent in the revolution, he asked his friend Carnot to come up with a new system of reorganizing the military. And Carnot, he's a mathematician and scientist. He came up with the idea of conscription.

Let's call it Leve en masse. So let's get everyone to join the military so as to dilute the influence of nobility. And it works spectacular well. And because he's a mathematician, he was extremely well organized, okay? He is one of the main conspirators against Ropes Pier. Because when he amassed power,

he recognized that he couldn't really benefit from his power. Robs Pier was too virtuous. He demanded on everyone making sacrifices. And so these people that Rose Pier promoted that Rose Pierre favored would eventually conspire against him okay and one of these men is Carnot and Carnot is also important because Carnot would make Napoleon a general right so the thing about Napoleon that makes him distinctive in

the military is he's very good at coming close with political patrons okay he's very good at identifying political patrons and getting them to help him in his career all right so as you can see because conscription, the French army is increasing, and that forces the other armies of Europe to increase as well. Okay? So you can see the spike. During this time, because of all these reforms in military, many young great generals are merging in the French military. So Napoleon is the most famous, but there are others who are actually just as good, even better than Napoleon, okay? Dozens of them. And these generals, will become the core of the French military.

All right. And all of them are driven by a Republican idealism. They want French to become a republic. They want French to be free. They want to spread the revolution all across the world. Not only are they devoted and idealistic, but also their soldiers. Their soldiers are willing to die in battle,

whereas the other nations are not. not okay the vote we talked about okay without the vote there's no way Napoleon could have won his battles the vaux is probably the greatest general at this time so so carno makes Napoleon a general and why is Napoleon given the generalship because Napoleon does the carno a favor so after Ropes's pure is a director is set up to basically be the dictatorship of France okay five-man dictatorship which includes Carnot and also Paul Barra who is also another patron of Napoleon as well as a friend of Robespierre and at first after

Robespier's downfall both Paul Barre and Napoleon are under investigation because they are friends of Robespier but because they are extremely political politically flexible, I mean, he is the opposite of Robespierre. Robespierre was virtuous, he's very cynical, okay? He's your perfect political operator, okay? He's able to become one of the leaders of the directory, and he helps promote Napoleon's career. Napoleon helps them because at this time there's a mob,

a Paris mob, that threatens the directory, okay? And what Napoleon does is he fires cannon at them, okay? And as a general, you're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to actually go, kill your own people but the point he is ambitious he's merciless and he so the director owes him a favor and he asked for a generalship of the Italian Peninsula why because that's where Julius Caesar is from right and in the Italian Peninsula he wins a lot of battles the record the the the record is

mixed it's not as great as people make it out to be okay but after the Italian Peninsula what's interesting is he then goes to Egypt Why? Because Alexander the Great went to Egypt and Julius Caesar went to Egypt, okay? So even at this particular stage in his career, he understands how to create a mythology of himself, right? I am the new Julius Caesar, I'm the new Alexander of the Great, and it works, okay? Because in 1799, Paul Barra, as well as Emil Sayas, who is now the head of the government, they get sick of the Republic. The Republic, it's corrupt, It's ineffectual.

They want to establish their own dictatorship. But for them to establish their dictatorship, they need a general to help them out. So they need the army on their side, and they go to different individuals. They go to first general, Monroe, who is right now considered the best general in France. He's the most respected.

And Monroe, we're decided with them, they would have no issues with their coup d'etat. But Morel, he's a staunch Republican. He refuses. He's like, no, this goes against the revolution. this goes against the legacy of Rolfo's peer. I refuse to join in your coup d'etat. So then they go to

McDonald, okay? At this point, McDonald is like, I don't want to do this, but have you talked to Napoleon? Okay? And so they go talk to Napoleon, and of course Napoleon wants to do this. Napoleon's been dreaming about this.

He wants to be the new Caesar who crosses the Rubicon and ends the Roman Republic. Okay, and so what happens is Napoleon launched a coup d'etat in Paris. And at this point, the great fear is the mob of Paris will rise up against Napoleon. But they don't, because Napoleon has such a great job of creating mythology of himself as a Messiah, right? At this point, after the death of Robs Pier, people are looking for a Messiah. So Napoleon gets away with it.

And then what he does is he knows that now that he's dictator, he needs to, He needs to fulfill people's mythology of him as Messiah. So rather than just sit and enjoy being emperor, he decides to go to Italy again. So the first thing he does, which is really interesting, is he crosses the Alps. He crossed the Alps. Why?

Because Hannibal crossed the Alps. And during, in Italy, he makes a lot of really stupid decisions. So for example, he had the Austrian army in circles. So he had different forces surrounding the Austrian army. And what Napoleon was afraid of is the Austrian army would run away. But if you're a general in the Austrian army, you recognize that the French are divided, right? So I just bodeos them, okay? So the Austrian's launch a massive attack against the French.

And the French are now being overwhelmed. But the French have incredible discipline, so they hold the line, but they're still being overwhelmed because it's outnumbered. Napoleon comes in with his elite group, with his elite soldiers. And the elite soldiers hold their line, but 50% of them are killed. And so now the Austrians are just bodeos in the French, right?

Napoleon is safe because another French army is able to come in and save them. So Napoleon is taking all these stupid risk for no particular reason, and it's all to create a mythology of himself as this great conquer, because what he recognizes is, I don't have to win this battle,

because I control the government. When I go back, to France I'll just tell everyone I won and everyone will believe me what's important is action okay I need action in order to create my mythology all right so after this time campaign what he does next is create a legend of himself as a new Messiah who will lead the French people into the promised land okay this is the battle of Marengo where Napoleon should have been destroyed but he got lucky again And in 1804, he makes himself emperor of France.

And this now destroys the revolution. Because the Maasai is not supposed to do this. Mazzai is not supposed to make himself emperor. The Messiah is supposed to be selfless, like Rose Pier, and lead the people to victory, to free the entire world. You're not supposed to become emperor, okay? Because once you become emperor, you have worldly needs. He makes now his brothers, emperors as well.

He makes his brother, Joseph, emperor of all. Italy as well as Spain. Okay? He then makes his other brother, so this is Joseph. He then makes his other brother, Lewis, King of Holland. So he's basically dividing all of Europe among his family members. And obviously, if you are a French revolutionary who dedicate your entire life to promoting liberty around the world,

you don't see this as a good thing, right? All right, so the other thing about Napoleon is he was an extremely selfish individual. He was narcissistic, he was selfish. The reason why we know this is one thing that he spent a lot of time on is writing letters to his wife, the Empress Josephine. So let's just read, let's just read certain sections of these letters. So he writes to Josephine, since I left you, okay, he's in campaign right now in Italy. I have been constantly depressed.

happiness is to be a new you okay so he's obsessed with Josephine okay he's he's a general he's in charge of tens of thousands of soldiers but every day he's thinking about hey it's Josephine sleeping with another man it's like literally what he's thinking he's like I know Josephine sleeping with another man and I'm gonna I'm gonna really angry when I find out okay but that's what he's thinking every day and we know because I don't love you anymore on the contrary I detest you you are a vile mean busy slut all right so this is this is what he's writing to his wife who's sleeping with other

man while he's away on campaign also my mistress is do not in the least engage my feelings power is my mistress so this is a megal maniac he's narcissistic he's obsessed with obtaining as much power as possible that's what drives him when he recognizes is this in order for him to maintain his mythology in order for him to maintain his image as a Messiah he French needs to be constantly at war so even though Napoleon could at this time just enjoy being emperor instead he's constantly at war with everyone in order to Maintain his mythology because the mythology is what controls the French people if you don't have this

mythology they won't let you become emperor anymore. And so as a result France becomes the largest empire in Europe. Okay, so the blue the light blue it's all part of the French empire. He's controlled French but he controls Spain, Italy, parts of Prussia, Germany. Okay, and the problem with Europe is, as I mentioned in previous classes, the geography. It's very hard to control all of it. So Britain is still impossible to conquer. Right now, Britain has the greatest navy in the world. France has the greatest land army in the world,

but Great Britain has the greatest navy in the world, and therefore they can never be invaded. Russia is just too big to be invaded. They're still Austria around. And so now the French army, it is overextended, and people have lost their revolutionary fever. They don't want to die anymore for Napoleon. So now the French army, they're fighting all these battles,

they're losing a lot of men, and these men are being replaced with just common people who don't really care about fighting. So now the French army is in decline. decline. The turning point of course is in the year 1812 and that's that's the year when Napoleon decided to invade Russia and even though the invasion is a failure he's still able to escape. The problem though is that in Russia he's lost his cavalry. He no he no longer has cavalry in battle so that's a huge disadvantage also his soldiers soldiers are fighting a guerrilla warfare in

in Spain because what's happened is because of Napoleon's conquest, nationalism is on the rise. Before, people fought against Napoleon in order to restore the French monarchy in order to stop the revolution. Now people fighting against Napoleon in order to secure the national independence from the French, in order to practice a religion, in order to protect their national values. And so the Spanish rise against the French, Napoleon, but also the Jewish. Germans as well. So now Napoleon is way over-extended and he no longer has the military that he once had during the revolution. All right. So eventually, Poland is defeated. This is called the Congress of Vienna and it will lead to something called the cons of Europe.

And this piece is being mastered by a man named Menernick, okay? And Menonik argues for balance of power. Let's just maintain our our borders and let's no longer fighting more wars. Because Napoleon, his wars, killed millions of people. We are sick and tired of war. The people are sick and tired of war. That's why Napoleon was defeated, because people wanted peace. Now, so this concept of Europe, this peace agreement, and we can think of this as actually like a proto-Unite Nations,

an organization dedicated to maintaining balance of power in Europe. it works extremely well. The Napoleon's 15 in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, and after that, there's no more wars in Europe, until maybe 1856 during the Crimean War. That's like 40, 50 years. So it's an incredibly successful formula.

The problem though is this. If you don't let people fight wars, what are they gonna do? They're gonna revolt against you. So because of inequality, you have all this massive tension in society. So your options are either you take people to war and kill off a lot of people or these people will rise against you. That's what happened in 1848 during the revolutions when all of Europe was in go from

revolutions. We will study this later on. But I want you to remember this idea. 1815, the Congress of Vienna, Congress of Europe, Minernick establishes establishes peace in Europe. And they think this is a great thing. But then you have the revolutions of 1848, which threaten and destroy a lot of these monarchies and so after that what happens we now have you have continued continue continue continues wars okay all right so that's the so that's what the people that's what the elite of Europe discovered because of the French Revolution you can either have your soldiers

go to war or they will revolt against you that's your choice all right and that's and and so this will take us into war one in the 20th century okay so The peace of Europe is one of major legacies of the Revolution, but as I mentioned, another major legacy that we must not forget is the increase of liberalism in Europe at this time. There are many nations that start to adopt that start to adopt French Revolution principles. But there are nations who are forced to adopt trans-revolution principles like Prussia because they have no choice if they're a fight of war. There are other nations like Austria, which will adopt these principles later on.

So even though Napoleon will kill a French Revolution, and Napoleon himself will be defeated by the Europeans, the French Revolution marks a radical turning point in history. The French Revolution marks the beginning of liberalism, modernity, humanism, a lot of great things that now define our modern world. We would not be living in the world that we live in today because... Sorry, we would not be living in the world. today with the French Revolution.

Okay? It is probably the most significant event in human history. All right, so let me conclude now by talking about these great figures that have emerged in human history and compare them, okay? So as I mentioned at the beginning of the class, without Roast Pierre, Napoleon would not have been possible. All right? So this chart shows us how.

You compare Rose Pier and Napoleon. Rose Pier obtained his power through virtue and dedication. He worked 18 hours a day. He was completely dedicated to the revolution. He had no girlfriend. He had no money. He was not being paid for his work. All he was doing was to ensure the revolution would succeed.

And because of his dedication and virtue, the revolution was saved and they succeeded. So at Rowe's Pia, the French Revolution would not have been possible. He was a profit of reason. He believed that everyone had the capacity to reason. So if you present our logical argument, people would understand it. Okay, and that was both the source of his virtue, but it was also the source of his downfall because he could not imagine that His friends would conspire against him because they wanted to protect their own self-interest Okay, and the third thing about Rose Pierre that's important is he saved the French Revolution

Now let's compare him with Napoleon, okay, who's completely opposite Napoleon got to where he was because of political maneuvering He was able to identify political patrons early in his career and he did whatever they asked of him and then together they launched a coup d'etat against the French Republic and after coup d'et tis succeeded he betrayed his political allies and he amassed power for himself that's how he became emperor okay so Napoleon he's a great politician we think of him as a general but he's really a politician the thing about Napoleon

that made him so successful is his myth-making genius he understood that people are looking for myths and he knew how to present himself as a mythic figure like the Messiah okay and as a result he destroyed the French Republic now what's interesting is that if you look at human history figures like Napoleon appear always at the end of a republic okay so the French so Napoleon killed the French Republic but they have Julius Caesar who is of the same personality okay Julius Caesar was able to identify political patrons very early on and out maneuver them as a mass power you'll see

was focused on creating a myth of himself as a unbeatable general and as a result he destroyed the Roman Republic later on we will study Hitler Hitler follows the same pattern all right Hitler was able to amass power because he outmaneuvered his political patrons and allies we will study this okay remember the Nazis came did not come out of nowhere the Nazis were a force incubated by the German army in order to destroy the communist movement And Hitler took advantage of this. Hitler got to where he was because he created a myth of himself as a savior of the German people.

And then he destroyed the Roman Republic. Why is this important? Because it's entirely possible we are living at another inflection point in history where the American Republic may be destroyed. Trump, okay? How did Trump get to where he is? Booker maneuvering. Why is he present? Because he has a myth-making genius.

That's really important to understand about Trump. Everyone's like, Trump is a terrible business person. He's lost a lot of money. Trump doesn't understand terrorists. He doesn't understand the economy. He doesn't care. He understands mythology. He understands how to capture people's attention.

He knows how to instill an image of himself as a Messiah in people's minds. That's what he cares about, right? He doesn't need to succeed. He needs to act. And then he needs to present himself in a way that, just people's imagination what does Trump spend all his time on he spends all his time talking to the press that's his job okay you understand his job is not to think about economics or military matters his job is talk to the press and

create an image of himself as a Messiah to the American people okay so the question then is okay well listen if we see this pattern Napoleon Caesar Hitler are the same person the results are the same and Trump is similar to Napoleon Caesar and Hitler what's going to happen I don't know okay all right but okay and this is really important if in fact in the next 10 years and it will probably 10 years if Trump actually destroys the American Republic okay then a pattern emerges in history all right and if this pattern is consistent now we're able to control because we're able to foresee and predict history.

Okay. So that's the idea. Okay, that's it. Any questions? What was this clear to you guys? All right, good. Rose Pier. Okay, that's a great question, okay.

Why did Napoleon succeed where Rose Pier failed? Okay, so the difference is this. If I'm Rose Pier, I believe everyone is capable of reason, right? Therefore, you have a responsibility to reason for yourself. You understand? I will give you ideas, but you must come to your own conclusions, you must act independently of me. Okay? And Napoleon's like, no, no, no. People don't want to think. People want to believe. People want to obey. If I present myself as Messiah and I tell people, follow me and I will leave you to paradise, people want to follow me.

Okay, and people love this confidence, right? This charisma, this confidence of Napoleon. Think of Trump, right? Maybe you and I think Trump's an idiot, but if you're a normal person, you believe that Trump, he is a genius, because he's so confident, right? People are attracted to confidence.

Does that make sense? People aren't attracted to logic or reason. They're attracted to confidence and charisma. Trump tells everyone, follow me and the world will be fine. We will make America great again. And you're like, well, that doesn't make any sense. It doesn't matter, okay? What Trump has done is create a mythology that has captured people's imagination.

And as such, people are willing to die for this. Does that make sense? That's why made Napoleon such a great military leader. Because he has this confidence and people just have to follow him. Doesn't make sense? Okay, great question. Any more questions? Okay, myth making, okay?

Myth making is, all right, there's reality. Okay, why is Trump a myth-making genius? Okay, this reality, right? These are things that you and I see every day. And then there's myths. These are ideas that we have about how society works, about how the world works. Now, objectively speaking, Trump is a failed business person.

His father was a great business person. great business person Fred Trump who built a real estate empire and then Trump came along and took this empire over and he almost bankrupted this empire okay and so Fred Trump was spending a lot of this time thinking about how to make money like how do I make a great business how do I hire good people how do I motivate them how do I steal more money from the government okay so he was focused on the very specifics of running a business Trump is like no people don't Don't want that. People want to see a successful billionaire, okay? And what's a

sister of a billionaire? He sleeps with a beautiful woman, right? I'm gonna find a beautiful woman and I'm gonna sleep with them and the press is reported and then people were like oh my god this guy is a god because all these beautiful woman want to sleep with him. Therefore I should give him my money to spend to invest because he's a genius, okay? mythology of success. That doesn't make sense. So what made Trump actually really famous is a show called The Apprentice. The Apprentice, it's a TV show, it's made up, and the show presents Trump as this extremely wise and forward-looking business person.

And he's the opposite in reality, okay? But what Trump understands is really important is people don't care about reality. People want to watch a TV show that's exciting, that's interesting, that's interesting, that's fun. So if I turn politics into a TV show and everyone's watching all the time, they will always want me to be president. Doesn't make sense? Yeah, because, yeah, okay, so is perception more important than reality?

And the answer is yes. Okay? And the reason why is reality, it is very hard. It's very difficult. All right? People prefer simple ideas, simple myths that allow them to better navigate reality. That's why religion is important. So what Trump's doing is he's creating a religion.

He's creating a religion about himself, right? And it's really the same idea as Napoleon. Napoleon says this, right? I saw the way to achieve my dreams. I would found a religion. I saw myself as marching into Asia, Mount an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran that I would have composed to suit my needs. Magnet is a new religion. Make America great it again. Don't think of it as a political movement. Think of it as a new religion.

Now I will explain to you why Trump is so powerful. Okay? I think Trump will be president of the United States for the next 10 years. It is very hard to remove him because like once you remove him, the TV show ends. You understand? Now you have to go back to reality. You don't want that. You want to live in a TV show. Exactly, exactly. That's exactly right. People want to live in a dream. It's perfect, thank you. People want to live in a dream. Because that's what makes life bearable. Does that make sense? Yeah. That's a great question. Okay, so the argument against this is like, like Trump is a terrible economic leader. And so with this terrorist war against China, with all of these policies, is this is going to make the American person more poor?

Okay, so less money spend. The American won't be able to afford a house. Okay, so this is really important, but you have to think about people's psychology. All right, so sorry, sorry, let me write with this now, because it's a very important idea, okay? You have to understand people's psychology. Okay, people are not thinking, are not capable of thinking in absolute terms. Doesn't make sense. Like, if I give you a bottle of wine, okay, this part of wine.

Okay, and I give you another pot of wine. And I ask you to tell me which is better. You're not able to do it. Okay? But I told you, this one is $50. This one is $10. You know, this has to be better. Do you understand?

So people's psychology, it's very interesting, but people cannot think objectively, okay? People can only compare and contrast. So, let's just say, okay, trade war. the American consumer is losing pushing power right so the person is getting more poor but if China is getting more poor in this time right so US goes down but China goes down even more people are happy do you understand okay I I I know this is terrible but that's this is true I don't have to make

you rich I just make everyone else poor and then you're happy right make America great again make America great again do you understand being great it's just a perception I'm better than everyone else and then I'm great I don't have to be I don't have to be wealthy I just have to be better off than everyone else so the entire world is poor America is happier does that make sense okay so that's That's a logic here. Trump doesn't want to make America wealthy again. He needs to make America a myth again.

You understand? He wants to create the myth of a great America because the rest of the world is either at war, or it's bankrupt, or people feel hopeless. You understand? And honestly, he's right, okay? He's absolutely correct in this matter. And that explains why he's doing what he's doing.

Does that make sense? Okay, great. Any more questions? All right, good. Okay, so we're thinking a break, and then we come back from the break, we start the British Empire.