deep impulse behind the events of 1812. The problem about unassimi
lated 'complexes' like Napoleon's imperial idea is not just their
irrationality but the way they collide with other complexes. So, to the
rational aim of worldwide struggle with Britain fo r a global empire are
added the inherited imperative of 'natural frontiers', the Bonaparte family
complex, requiring him to find thrones for his siblings, the Oriental
complex and the Roman emperor complex. It is hardly surprising that the
fo reign policy that emerged from this mess was itself a fiasco.
It becomes increasingly clear that Napoleon's expansionism was a
much more complex affair than, say, Hitler's push fo r Lebensraum. As a
result of his irrational motivation, Napoleon had been fo rced to create a
monster he could not control in the fo rm of the Grande Armee. He could
direct its marches like a master and even knock sense into his recalcitrant
marshals but he could not control the inexorable factor of finance. Once
launched into his overseas adventures through a variety of confused
motives, Napoleon could not turn back. His ambitions collided with those
of the other great powers. Britain could not tolerate natural frontiers
which put Belgium and the Rhine in French hands, Prussia could not
abide the Confederation of the Rhine, Austria thirsted for revenge fo r the
loss of Italy, while Alexander wanted to play the role Napoleon was
playing and was thus in competition fo r the same space. Napoleon
therefore had a stark choice: he could disband his armies and return to
the 1792 frontiers- which meant in effect to negate himself and deny his
own identity - or, because of fears of backlash from his enemies, he had
to keep the Grand Army in being.
To keep it in being meant performing a juggling act as between fo reign
and domestic affairs. On the one hand Napoleon had to satisfy the French
bourgeoisie and peasantry, to ward off Jacobins and royalists and prevent
army coups. On the other hand, having inherited a legacy of financial ruin
from the Revolution, he had to make sure the huge costs of the Grande
Armee did not fall on the French taxpayer. Meanwhile, feeling that his
family contained the only people he could trust and knowing of their
jealousy and megalomania, he had to provide them with thrones and
incomes. Napoleon's Empire, conceived in Roman terms in his own
imagination, thus became in reality a massive system of out-relief. This is
another way of saying that a would-be Emperor should not be a rootless
adventurer without a proper power base.
It was not in Napoleon's nature to proceed cautiously or to make real
concessions to his enemies. Unable to concentrate on any one aim, he still
wanted it all and he wanted it now. He would neither let the Czar have
Poland nor declare for an independent Poland. Aiming for 'credibility' he
marcin
(Marcin)
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