6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 1/39 Home built with How to Take Over the World Napoleon Bonaparte Today we're talking about Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general, reformer, innovator, and emperor. I explore his life, strategies, tactics, work habits, leadership style, and more. As always, go to HTTOTW.com to see more of my writing, learn more about the podcast, or sign up for my newsletter. Also, you can follow me on Twitter at @HTTOTW. Hello and welcome to How To Take Over The World. This is Ben Wilson. For this first episode, we're going to be talking about Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general, king, emperor, and reformer. And to start off with, why am I doing this, 🎙 00:00:00.000 - 00:00:36.543 my very first episode of How to Take Over the World, about Napoleon? I think many people know him as the short angry guy. You've heard of the Napoleon complex, and that's what you think of when you hear Napoleon. 🎙 00:00:36.543 - 00:00:48.663 So it might seem like a strange place to start for many people. And there's a few reasons I wanna start with Napoleon. The first is his absolute brilliance and the volume of his accomplishments. And when you think of what you would consider 🎙 00:00:48.663 - 00:01:01.623 a successful life, what do you hope to do before you die? Maybe start a successful business you might consider. yourself successful if you did that. Or what about founding a university? I mean that would be big, 🎙 00:01:01.623 - 00:01:13.594 right? Or becoming president. Well, Napoleon went from being a penniless refugee in a foreign country to becoming emperor of the largest empire since ancient Rome. It stretched from Spain to Poland, from Denmark to Italy, covered most of Europe. He won 54 of his 62 battles despite almost 🎙 00:01:13.594 - 00:01:33.834 always being outnumbered. He pioneered numerous military innovations. He reformed the legal code in France. did the same in many other countries throughout Europe. He founded multiple universities and schools 🎙 00:01:33.834 - 00:01:46.093 spanning multiple continents. He modernized a French bureaucracy, founded two newspapers. He wrote novels and political propaganda in his spare time. And there's more. The volume of his accomplishments is truly mind-blowing and hard to capture. So I wanted to see and to learn how 🎙 00:01:46.093 - 00:02:01.933 could someone do this much in one lifetime. The other reason I wanted to focus on Napoleon is he falls at an interesting time in history. On the one hand, he's the last great conqueror. You think of these guys 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 2/39 who established these great European or Mediterranean empires people like Alexander the Great Julius Caesar 🎙 00:02:01.933 - 00:02:19.733 Charlemagne Cyrus the Great and Napoleon is the last man to single-handedly Craft an empire out of nothing like that. So in some ways he feels very ancient. It's easy to Project him backwards and compare him to those guys that I just mentioned 🎙 00:02:20.053 - 00:02:34.893 But on the other hand in some ways he feels very modern You know you look at what he was doing all day and most days it was making plans having meetings and reading and writing writing letters. And what does a modern CEO do? Well, mostly they make plans, have meetings, 🎙 00:02:35.413 - 00:02:51.312 and read and write emails. Some of his greatest innovations were in very modern sounding things like supply chain and organizational structure. He had the first modern chief of staff like a CEO would have. So when you listen to his life story, it's also easy to project 🎙 00:02:51.312 - 00:03:05.152 him forward and compare him to guys like Warren Buffett or Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. And he's the only guy I can think of who's easy to compare to both Alexander the Great and Warren Buffett. So I wanted to start with him because he's an easy point of comparison for everyone 🎙 00:03:05.152 - 00:03:19.392 else we'll get at. talk about no matter the time period. Now having said all of that before we get started, I want to give special thanks to Andrew Roberts and David Markham, both of whose research and writing I use heavily throughout 🎙 00:03:19.392 - 00:03:31.034 this episode. The number one source that I use, and I'll quote from it extensively, is the excellent biography Napoleon A Life by Andrew Roberts. I also want to briefly note that Napoleon's life is way too dense and complex to cover 🎙 00:03:31.034 - 00:03:44.794 in one episode of a podcast, so there is a lot I leave out. I'm 100% focused on teasing out the elements of his personality, habits, approach and leadership style that made him great. So if you notice something is missing, for example, I leave out the entire war of the 🎙 00:03:44.794 - 00:03:59.295 fifth coalition, please know I didn't just forget about it. I know the history, but I just I have limited time. And so some things had to be skipped. Okay. So having got all that out of the way, I present to you episode one, Napoleon Bonaparte. 🎙 00:03:59.295 - 00:04:14.815 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 3/39 Okay. Listen up. If you want to start a business, but you don't know exactly what to start, this is the perfect resource for you. It's called Ideation Boot Camp. And one of the secrets of this podcast is that you don't actually have to blaze your 🎙 00:04:14.815 - 00:04:27.920 own trail in life. You can just copy other people, very little deviation and have it work out. So for example, Kobe Bryant, the basketball star, he decided that he was just going to copy Michael Jordan. 🎙 00:04:27.920 - 00:04:36.740 Literally do everything that he did, even stick his tongue out like Michael Jordan did, and he became one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Similarly, Steve Jobs copied Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid, Napoleon copied Caesar, 🎙 00:04:36.740 - 00:04:47.460 Caesar copied Alexander the Great. This is a strategy that works. And if you want to be an entrepreneur, this course will teach you how to find a great business idea by copying other successful businesses. 🎙 00:04:47.460 - 00:04:58.260 And so what it teaches you to do is literally reverse engineer other businesses to figure out what actually is a great and really successful business. And this isn't pie in the sky stuff. It's literally teaching you the tools, the websites, the platforms, the actual things 🎙 00:04:58.260 - 00:05:13.020 that you need to figure out a company's web traffic, the revenue, their marketing funnel, everything about it. And then it helps you figure out businesses that are similar that you could start yourself. 🎙 00:05:13.020 - 00:05:23.740 And this course is made by someone who has done this himself. This is Sam Parr who has started multiple businesses and sold his last company, the hustle, for tens of millions of dollars. So this is someone who really knows what he's talking about. 🎙 00:05:23.740 - 00:05:33.860 So it's a great resource. If you want to be an entrepreneur, check it out at ideationbootcamp.co and use code BEN to get $50 off. Again, that is my name, Ben, BEN, again, that is ideationbootcamp.co. 🎙 00:05:33.860 - 00:05:48.780 Alright, listen up. I'm about to change your life. Last year I did this course called Copy That, and it's life changing because it's the best resource that I have found for learning to be a better writer. 🎙 00:05:51.362 - 00:06:03.402 And here's why. If you learn to play the piano, do you sit down and the first time try and compose a new song? Of course not, right? You learn by playing Bach and Beethoven and the Beatles, and then when you are proficient 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 4/39 🎙 00:06:03.402 - 00:06:15.962 and you know what great music sounds like, only then do you try and make your own stuff. Well, then why is it that when you learn to write, you're learning a new composition right off the bat? So Copy That flips that around. 🎙 00:06:15.962 - 00:06:27.002 It teaches you how to be a better writer by copying the writing of some of the greatest writers to have ever lived, literally just copying out by hand what they did. One of my favorite quotes in life is we are what we repeatedly do. 🎙 00:06:27.002 - 00:06:39.882 Therefore excellence is not an act but a habit. And that's what Copy That does. It gets you in the habit of writing like a great writer, and it really works. And by the way, this is the way everyone used to learn to write. 🎙 00:06:39.882 - 00:06:51.522 That's why if you go read the letters of like Civil War soldiers with a fifth grade education, it's better writing than when you get from most professional novelists nowadays. And that's because they learned by doing this by copying other people. 🎙 00:06:51.522 - 00:07:04.842 It's called Copy Work. So if you want to become a better writer and you should because it's applicable in every element of life, then this is the best way to do it. So go check it out at copythat.com and use code TakeOver for $20 off. 🎙 00:07:04.842 - 00:07:19.282 Again, that is copythat.com and use code TakeOver. Let's start with the background. Who was this Napoleon guy? He was born in 1769 and he comes onto the scene at a time of really rapid change. You think about it, and most countries, at the time in Europe, were ruled by kings and 🎙 00:07:19.282 - 00:07:39.393 queens, but this is about to be upended. The French Revolution would happen in his lifetime. Warfare was also rapidly going under change. You have cannons and muskets, but also bayonets, and sometimes even pikes and swords being used 🎙 00:07:39.393 - 00:07:54.393 in battle. So you've got some of these weapons. Please stay with us, searches, databases or releases. We've scrap them here, and first we've now done a big deal about alt Carl himself because they helped tip him into a 🎙 00:07:54.393 - 00:08:05.393 supernially impressive place. that are very modern in some ways, but literally at the same time cavalry charges where men on horses with swords are charging at the enemy. So these are the times into which Napoleon is born. 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 5/39 🎙 00:08:05.393 - 00:08:07.315 He was born on the island of Corsica. His birth name was Napoleon de Buonaparte. And if you're thinking to yourself, that doesn't sound very French, you're right. Corsica is an island and it's off the coast of both Italy and France. It's about the same distance from each, 🎙 00:08:09.075 - 00:08:25.715 and for most of its history it was for all intents and... purposes, Italian. The language spoken on the island, Corsican, is an Italian dialect. But Napoleon is born a French citizen because Corsica became a part of the French Empire 🎙 00:08:25.715 - 00:08:38.893 in 1769, the same year he was born. So Napoleon was, in many ways, an outsider and a foreigner in France. He didn't learn French until he was 9 or 10, and always spoke it with a heavy accent. And by the way, if you're asking yourself, you said his name was Napoleoné de 🎙 00:08:38.893 - 00:08:54.413 Bonaparte. So how come I know him as Napoleon Bonaparte? It's because he changed his name as a name when he became a general to sound more French. As a boy, Napoleon was bright. One of the things that's interesting to think about is, are these kinds of people destined 🎙 00:08:54.413 - 00:09:08.954 for greatness? Are they just born to take over the world? Or do they do things to develop that ability and become that? And at least in Napoleon's case, it seems you can make a strong case that this was at 🎙 00:09:08.954 - 00:09:20.914 least somewhat learned or developed. If you read the reliable first-hand accounts from his family members about his childhood, everyone thought he was smart, but no one had any idea that he would become an emperor, 🎙 00:09:20.914 - 00:09:32.434 some sort of... great man that would affect history. I mean for one thing no one on Corsica even really had those kinds of dreams. It was an unimportant backwater. And by the way while we're talking about his 🎙 00:09:32.434 - 00:09:42.671 origins, let's dispel a myth about Napoleon. He wasn't that short. He was about five seven, which was average height for a commoner, maybe a little short for an officer, but Napoleon was sort of medium to medium short. And the whole thing about him being this short 🎙 00:09:42.671 - 00:09:59.071 angry man and the Napoleon complex and all that. It was just propaganda. His height, I mean if you read his biography and read the. people who talked about him, his height just wasn't that big of a deal in his life. 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 6/39 🎙 00:09:59.071 - 00:10:11.717 And this isn't me just sticking up for the short guy. I'm 6'4". I have no dog in this fight, but that's just the truth. Sorry to disillusion you from what you know about the Napoleon complex, but it's not 🎙 00:10:11.717 - 00:10:20.277 accurate about his life. The Bonaparte's were a prominent family on the island, and that was good enough to entitle Napoleon to a royal education. So when he was nine years old, they were able to ship him off to a boarding school to get 🎙 00:10:20.277 - 00:10:32.937 a good education in France. And again, he's viewed as bright, more intelligent than average at an elite institution. but not as the most brilliant guy that they have ever seen. The remarks that his examiner gives on the referral papers at graduation 🎙 00:10:32.937 - 00:10:48.586 are positive but not ecstatic. He says in part, quote, he has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He's fairly well acquainted with history and geography. This boy would make an excellent sailor. 🎙 00:10:48.586 - 00:11:02.826 I like his rather modest origins because it gives me hope. I've done a few semi-cool things but I'm not a billionaire yet. And the Italian didn't do anything all that remarkable until he was in his mid to late 20s. 🎙 00:11:02.826 - 00:11:16.264 And the point isn't that you have to have accomplished something by your mid to late 20s, but rather that greatness can be cultivated at any time in life. So after this boarding school, he gains admission to the elite, Echol Militar. 🎙 00:11:16.264 - 00:11:29.784 And I have to apologize for my French pronunciation. I don't speak French. Never took it all in school. My pronunciation is pretty bad. You're just going to have to deal with it for this episode. 🎙 00:11:29.784 - 00:11:40.144 I apologize. And at this Echol Militar, he graduates becoming an artillery officer after just one year. After graduation, he takes some minor posts of little note and he's not doing a whole lot of great importance in his career. And during this time, 🎙 00:11:40.144 - 00:11:59.071 the French Revolution occurs. The revolutionaries take control of the government, do away with the king, and establish a republic. And the whole thing is very bloody. They kill the king, they exile or kill most of the nobles. And the kings and queens of other nations in Europe are looking at 🎙 00:11:59.071 - 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 7/39 00:12:14.031 this, and they don't like it at all, as you can imagine. And if you're a king of Germany or England or Austria, you don't like the precedent being set here of throwing out the king and killing him. 🎙 00:12:14.031 - 00:12:43.151 So many of them declare war on France and its revolutionary government. They want to stamp this thing out before it spreads and people start getting ideas in their countries. They don't want to have a revolution in their own country and have their heads roll. 🎙 00:12:24.236 - 00:12:37.796 These outside countries who are declaring war on France, one of the things they try to do is ally with people still loyal to the king inside France. The revolution isn't popular everywhere in France. 🎙 00:12:37.796 - 00:12:47.796 It's especially true in the countryside and areas of France that are far from Paris. One place where this plays out is a city called Toulon. And there are a lot of people there still loyal to the crown, so the British are able to sail their fleet into the harbor at Toulon. 🎙 00:12:47.796 - 00:13:02.036 And with a... help with some royalists, the people still loyal to the king, they take and they hold the city. Well, the French send forces to siege Toulon to try to take it back, and at first, things 🎙 00:13:02.036 - 00:13:12.767 don't go particularly well for the French. They don't have very good or active commanders, so they're just sitting there. That's not going to work because Toulon is a port, and the British are just sailing 🎙 00:13:12.767 - 00:13:22.167 supplies in, so you can't just siege it and sit outside the city and starve them out. Well, the French start to realize, hey, we need some new leadership here if this is going to be successful. So they're looking for new leadership. 🎙 00:13:22.167 - 00:13:34.487 They're especially looking for an artillery commander. Now Napoleon had caught the eye of a couple higher ups because of a political pamphlet he had written. Napoleon was a very progressive guy and strongly supported the revolution. He had written this very pro-revolution 🎙 00:13:34.487 - 00:13:48.190 pamphlet. He had caught the eye of a higher up named Ogustan Robespierre and Ogustan really liked this pamphlet Napoleon had written so he's looking for an opportunity to give Napoleon a chance. And so here at Toulon they say 🎙 00:13:48.190 - 00:14:00.510 hey things aren't exactly working out. We need some new leadership. Let's put Napoleon in charge of the artillery and see if he can make some things happen. And this is the first time here at Toulon that you start to see... 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 8/39 🎙 00:14:00.510 - 00:14:37.670 Napoleon, the things that would make him great. You start to see the habits and characteristics that would lead to his success later in life. The first thing he does is he comes in and takes a look at the canons that they have 🎙 00:14:11.531 - 00:14:23.251 and he says, that's it. This is pitiful. It's a ragtag group of canons, the horses who pull them are poorly trained, the men don't really know what they're doing. There's not nearly enough gunpowder or cannonballs. 🎙 00:14:23.251 - 00:14:33.811 And rather than accepting this and saying, okay, well, you know, make the best of a bad situation or saying, hey, well, this isn't really my fault because I'm coming into a bad situation where I'm under supplied. 🎙 00:14:33.811 - 00:14:44.491 No. Napoleon decides he's not going to put up with this. So he starts doing everything in his power to get better supplied. He starts writing back to Paris where the government is and says, hey, we need more 🎙 00:14:44.491 - 00:14:54.929 of everything, more gunpowder, more cannons, more horses, and he keeps pestering them for more stuff all throughout the siege. He also sends men out to the countryside and has them go to nearby towns and see what they 🎙 00:14:54.929 - 00:15:04.569 can scrounge up. And they do. They find a few extra cannons that way just scattered throughout local towns. He takes cannons from city walls of nearby cities that aren't currently seeing combat. He takes control of a foundry and starts manufacturing more ammunition himself. 🎙 00:15:04.569 - 00:15:40.409 I mean, I love this part of the story. Um, this guy is so fixated on getting more supplies than when he doesn't have enough and the army won't supply it. He says, forget it. I will literally manufacture it myself. 🎙 00:15:19.600 - 00:15:33.280 And all these little things work. I'm reading from the Andrew Roberts biography now. He says, quote, the result of all this hectoring, bluster, requisitioning and political string pulling was that Napoleon put together a strong artillery 🎙 00:15:34.060 - 00:15:46.460 train in very short order. By the end of the siege, Napoleon commanded 11 batteries, totaling nearly 100 cannon and mortars. And by the way, he was there the term battery, which is something you'll hear 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 9/39 🎙 00:15:46.460 - 00:15:58.100 throughout the episode. That's just a unit of cannons. Okay, so at the same time that he's doing all this, he's also training his men and using a very hands-on personal style of leadership. One of the generals, who is in charge of the siege overall, 🎙 00:15:58.100 - 00:16:11.871 who has supervision over Napoleon, wrote quote, I always found him at his post. When he needed rest, he lay on the ground, wrapped in his cloak. He never left his batteries. And that was one of Napoleon's skills, 🎙 00:16:11.871 - 00:16:25.391 his ability to really focus on and obsess over a problem. This isn't a commander who is telling other men what to do during the day. and then enjoying a nice meal with the other officers at night. He's obsessed with getting things right. 🎙 00:16:25.391 - 00:16:39.190 He's working on getting his cannons ready day and night, and when he gets so tired that he literally just can't work anymore, he pulls his cloak around him and sleeps there on the ground by the cannons. 🎙 00:16:39.190 - 00:16:49.870 Imagine if you're one of the men working under Napoleon. You see this, you're going to be working pretty hard too to try and keep up with your commander. Well, once Napoleon has his battery in order, 🎙 00:16:49.870 - 00:16:59.430 he turns his eye toward an actual attack. And what is needed isn't terribly complicated. and strategically speaking. There are two high points in the city, and if you can control them, you have the ability to fire your cannons down on the rest of the city. This is obvious 🎙 00:16:59.430 - 00:17:13.408 to everyone, so the British have heavily fortified these two high points. Napoleon plans, organizes, and launches multiple assaults on these hills. And, true to form, he personally leads the attacks, a great risk to himself. At one point, his horse is shot out from under him. You 🎙 00:17:13.408 - 00:17:30.768 mentioned how close that call is, but the bullet had been a little higher. It would have shot and killed him. Another time he is on the ground. literally fighting hand-to-hand and he is stabbed through the thigh by a pike. 🎙 00:17:30.768 - 00:17:40.289 In another instance, one of the men manning the cannons is shot, so Napoleon picks up his gloves and ramrod and starts helping to fire the cannon himself. He exposed himself to a lot of danger, but this inspires his men. You can 🎙 00:17:40.289 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 10/39 - 00:17:53.269 imagine if you're a soldier and you've got some commander saying, hey go take that fort. It's heavily fortified. You'll probably die and I'm not going with you. Good luck. You'd be pretty skeptical compared to a commander who is 🎙 00:17:53.269 - 00:18:06.649 leading the charge and he's going to be there with you. When Napoleon inspires his men and with them he's able to take these two hills. Once they have taken the hills, they start firing heated cannonballs down onto the British 🎙 00:18:06.733 - 00:18:18.453 navy that's in the port. They destroy a number of ships and completely eject them from Toulon. As sort of an exclamation mark, one of the cannonballs hits the gunpowder storage on one of the ships and it explodes into a giant fireball. 🎙 00:18:18.453 - 00:18:33.813 Sijitoulon ends up being a huge victory for the French and Napoleon is seen by the government as a hero. They love this guy. Nothing was going on. They really hadn't seen any big- victories until now, and now they have one, and it's mostly due to this guy Napoleon. 🎙 00:18:33.813 - 00:18:49.212 And so now he's made a general at the very young age of 24, and his career really starts to take off from here. After Toulon, Napoleon has brought back to Paris where he helps plan grand strategy for 🎙 00:18:49.212 - 00:19:01.332 the French military. And while he's there in Paris, something really important happens. As I previously mentioned, not everyone was happy with the French Revolution, and in many ways, it had not been going particularly well so far. 🎙 00:19:01.332 - 00:19:12.932 In particular, the revolutionary government had implemented some reforms that were antagonistic toward the epidemic. Catholic Church, and they were extremely unpopular. If you know anything about France, 🎙 00:19:12.932 - 00:19:21.850 it's a very Catholic country. And so people didn't want to see the church hurt. So many people wanted to throw out the revolutionaries and put the king back. Others don't want to go that far, but they're united by this idea that the current government has to go. 🎙 00:19:21.850 - 00:19:34.890 Eventually, the government realizes they are in serious danger, and there's about to be another revolution in Paris. So they come to Napoleon and tell him, you're in charge of saving the government. Keep us safe. Safe. Stop a counter-revolution from happening. 🎙 00:19:34.890 - 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 11/39 00:19:48.010 Well, Napoleon flies into action as he does. The first thing he does is ask where the cannons are, and it turns out they're not in Paris, they're a few miles outside. So Napoleon sends out his cavalry and tells them to ride as fast as they can and bring 🎙 00:19:47.970 - 00:20:02.130 the cannons into Paris immediately. They take off and get there to retrieve the cannons just before the revolutionaries show up, and then they bring the cannons back to Paris to Napoleon. This is one of those moments where you look back and realize everything could have gone 🎙 00:20:02.130 - 00:20:16.650 differently if this had been different. If they had just been 15 minutes later and these revolutionaries had got the cannons before Napoleon, maybe the Napoleonic epic and this whole saga never happens because the revolutionary 🎙 00:20:16.650 - 00:20:30.570 government has thrown out. We'll never know, but it's one of those interesting what-ifs. Now to understand Napoleon's mindset with what is going to happen next, you have to understand that he had actually been there at the Tuileries Palace when the king was 🎙 00:20:30.570 - 00:20:43.079 taken at the beginning of the French Revolution. And the king had refused to let the men that were guarding him fire on the mob because well he was the French king and they were his French subjects and he didn't want to 🎙 00:20:43.079 - 00:20:54.359 shoot his own subjects. Well for his kindness, all his guards were massacred and he had his head chopped off. And so Napoleon isn't about to let this happen again because he's on the government side. 🎙 00:20:54.359 - 00:21:05.999 now he wants to keep his head. With this in mind, Napoleon sets up the cannons in the streets outside the government buildings, and the mobs start to pour out of the side streets and toward Napoleon and his men. Keep in mind, there is no army in Paris, so Napoleon 🎙 00:21:05.297 - 00:21:18.877 only has a few men at his disposal. And he has the cannons loaded up with canister shot. You think of cannons as firing cannonballs, but at close range you can basically use a cannon as a shotgun. Instead of loading it with a cannonball, you load a canvas bag packed 🎙 00:21:18.877 - 00:21:35.417 into tanks. metal balls. It was informally known as grape shot because these tiny cannonballs are about the size of grapes. And at short range it's just devastating. Instead of the area of one cannonball, you could wipe out an entire swath of people a few 🎙 00:21:35.417 - 00:21:49.598 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 12/39 meters or yards wide. Well legend has it that Napoleon says, as this mob is advancing toward his men, quote, give them a whiff of grape shot. And it's likely he never actually said this, but it's quite poetic. And it does reflect some of the 🎙 00:21:49.598 - 00:22:04.838 realities that Napoleon believed about warfare. He later did say, quote, if you treat the mob with kindness. These creatures fancy themselves invulnerable. If you hang a few, they get tired of the game and become as submissive and humble as they ought to be. 🎙 00:22:04.838 - 00:22:20.760 His viewpoint was, it's better to be harsh and kill some people at the beginning of an insurrection than to let it carry on and turn into a full-on war in which a bunch of people are going to suffer and die. 🎙 00:22:20.760 - 00:22:32.760 In any case, this whiff of grape shot works. Only about a half-dozen of his men die, about 300 revolutionaries are killed. After Napoleon's men shoot a few rounds of grape shot, these revolutionaries scatter and dissolve. 🎙 00:22:32.760 - 00:22:47.760 The government is saved and Napoleon is a hero once again. Well, the government is extremely grateful to Napoleon. They're glad to still be alive. So because of this episode, they reward Napoleon by putting him in charge of an army for the 🎙 00:22:47.208 - 00:23:01.208 first time. He gets put in command of the army of Italy. Now really quickly I should clarify the way these things are named because some of you might be thinking, wait what? Why is he in charge of an Italian army now? 🎙 00:23:01.208 - 00:23:12.728 The French were fighting on a few different fronts at this time with a few different enemies because a bunch of people were trying to come after them as we previously discussed. The forces in each distinct area were referred to as an army and the armies were called by 🎙 00:23:12.728 - 00:23:26.808 the location they were fighting. So if the army was fighting in the Alps, it was called the Army of the Alps. It was fighting in Germany. It was called the Army of Germany. You get the idea. So this army is fighting in Italy. 🎙 00:23:26.808 - 00:23:37.534 So it's the army of Italy. So it's the French army fighting in Italy. And why are they fighting in Italy? Well, the Austrian Empire was one of the great empires of the day. They controlled most of central and Eastern Europe and they're trying to cross 🎙 00:23:37.534 - 00:23:50.934 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 13/39 Italy and punish France for their revolution. So the French are fighting the Austrians in Italy. Napoleon comes in the command of the army of Italy and he immediately sees that just like it too long. 🎙 00:23:50.934 - 00:24:21.974 They're in really bad shape. They're poorly equipped. They lack shoes and sufficient ammunition. The men are upset because they haven't been paid what they've been promised and they never get paid on time. 🎙 00:24:02.183 - 00:24:13.042 They haven't been moving or fighting for quite a while. So the men are complacent and lazy. It's a bad situation all around. And what Napoleon does with the Army of Italy is, in my opinion, one of the greatest examples of his leadership. 🎙 00:24:13.462 - 00:24:26.343 He's only 26. He's got very little experience. And he's supposed to take over this huge army that has a number of commanders who are nearly twice his age and way more experience. Some of them have been commanding armies for almost as long as Napoleon's been alive, 🎙 00:24:26.702 - 00:24:42.163 and he's supposed to be giving them orders. Furthermore, he got this post not through being a great battlefield commander, but by putting down a mob in Paris. So the generals who he's supposed to be commanding are not favorably disposed towards him, they're 🎙 00:24:42.163 - 00:24:54.363 not looking forward to taking commands from him. Well this is what Napoleon does when he first comes into command. Here's a quote from one of the fellow officers who was there when he first comes and... 🎙 00:24:54.363 - 00:25:05.443 takes command, he says quote, I can still see the little hats surmounted by a pickup plume, his coat cut anyhow, and a sword which in truth did not seem the sort of weapon to make anyone's fortune. Flinging his hat on a large table in the middle of the 🎙 00:25:05.487 - 00:25:19.627 room, he went up to an old general named Krieg, a man with a wonderful knowledge of detail and the author of a very good soldier's manual. He made him take a seat beside him at the table and began questioning him pen in hand about a host of 🎙 00:25:19.627 - 00:25:32.627 facts connected with the service and discipline. Some of his questions. showed such a complete ignorance of the most ordinary things that several of my comrades smiled. I was myself struck by the number of his questions, their order, and their rapidity. 🎙 00:25:32.627 - 00:25:48.017 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 14/39 But what struck me still more was the sight of a commander in chief, perfectly indifferent about showing his subordinates how completely ignorant he was of various points of a business, which the youngest of them was supposed to know perfectly, and this raised him a thousand qubits in my opinion. 🎙 00:25:49.217 - 00:26:05.377 Now this is an interesting tactic, you might wonder, well shouldn't you be sure- So he doesn't really care about looking stupid. He doesn't have to pretend like he knows things that he doesn't actually know. 🎙 00:26:05.377 - 00:26:14.511 Think about it this way. If you're interviewing someone for a position, who's most likely to be totally honest about their flaws? It's the guy who knows he's qualified. He knows he's going to do a good job in this position. 🎙 00:26:14.511 - 00:26:26.351 He knows he's going to do a good job in this position. He knows he's going to do a good job in this position. He knows he's going to do a good job in this position. He knows he's got the goods. He doesn't need to embellish. 🎙 00:26:26.351 - 00:26:39.991 He can just say, hey, here's who I am. Weakness is an... Weakness is an... strengths. So Napoleon isn't afraid to admit where he has gaps in his knowledge. Here's another quote from a different officer on the same situation. Quote, 🎙 00:26:39.991 - 00:26:52.756 he questioned us on the position of our divisions, their equipment, the spirit and active number of each core, gave us the directions which we had to follow, announced that the next day he would inspect all the core, and the day after 🎙 00:26:52.756 - 00:27:05.396 that they would march on the enemy to give battle. I think this is such an interesting decision, isn't it? His army is under supplied and in bad spirits, and he says... Step one, we're going to attack the enemy right away. 🎙 00:27:05.396 - 00:27:20.096 Now he's still doing exactly what he did it too long at the same time. He's flying into a rage, riding back to Paris. Do you want us to fail? This is a disgrace. We need more shoes. We need more uniforms. 🎙 00:27:20.096 - 00:27:28.816 We need more gunpowder. And he writes these letters, pestering them for more supplies over and over again. But he doesn't wait for all the supplies to arrive. He marches right away. I think there are a number of reasons for this. 🎙 00:27:28.816 - 00:27:40.056 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 15/39 One, he was just extremely impatient. He loved speed. He always wanted to move faster and surprise the enemy. He's obsessed with moving his army quickly. But a big part of this was morale, the spirit of his troops. 🎙 00:27:40.056 - 00:27:52.165 Napoleon later said, quote, in war, moral factors account for three quarters of the whole, relative material strength accounts for only one quarter. Now your first thought might be, well, wait a minute, how is marching these grumpy, underpaid, 🎙 00:27:52.165 - 00:28:08.165 under supplied soldiers right into paddle going to improve their morale? If anything, you would think you would decrease it. We're under supplied and underpaid and now we're also going to get shot at and killed. 🎙 00:28:08.165 - 00:28:20.165 But he knew that inactivity, bread inactivity, he wanted his troops to... get used to marching and fighting. He didn't want them to stay lazy. And fighting might hurt morale if you lose, but there are a few things that improve it as much as fighting and winning. 🎙 00:28:20.165 - 00:28:34.033 He had the confidence that he was going to win and as we will see, he did. He marches his little army into Italy and really has no problem kicking the Austrians around. And one way he does this is by adopting what he calls the strategy of the central position. There's a quote from Napoleon 🎙 00:28:34.593 - 00:28:50.193 that gives a pretty good summary of the philosophy behind it. He said quote, during the Revolutionary Wars, the plan was to stretch out, to end columns to the right and left, which did no good. To tell 🎙 00:28:50.193 - 00:29:01.393 you the truth, the thing that made me gain so many battles was the evening before a fight. Instead of giving orders to extend our lines, I tried to converge all our forces on the point I wanted to attack. 🎙 00:29:01.393 - 00:29:12.599 I masked them there. So the Austrians are trying to spread out their army, while Napoleon is trying to concentrate his. What happens time and again is Napoleon will march toward the Austrians with a smaller army. 🎙 00:29:12.599 - 00:29:23.799 Let's say, the point has got 30,000 men against their 40,000. So their strategy is to try to envelop him, attack, they want to flank him, attack him from the sides. So they send 20,000 men to the left, 20,000 to the right, thinking to attack him from both sides. 🎙 00:29:23.799 - 00:29:38.479 As I previously mentioned, Napoleon is a f-cking- fast marcher he was obsessed with covering more miles per day and doing things faster. He did a number of things to get his men to be able to move 6/5/23, 6:35 PM Modal Podcast Transcriber file:///Users/olivierestevez/Desktop/Napoleon Podcast Transcriber.html 16/39 faster. 🎙 00:29:38.479 - 00:29:48.282 He had them live off the land instead of waiting for supply wagons. He would force march them, have them sleep under the stars instead of taking the time to set up and take down tents. Sometimes he would even march his men all night. 🎙 00:29:48.282 - 00:30:01.482 So when the Austrian split up, he just marches right into the middle of their trap and very quickly turns, beats one half of their army, which isn't too hard because now he out numbers them. And before they have a... 🎙 00:30:01.482 - 00:30:38.662 chance to spring the trap, he then turns around and marches back and beats the other half of their army. And this strategy is totally revolutionary at the time. So he's beating up on the Austrians in Italy and they start to retreat from him and as 🎙 00:30:13.082 - 00:30:26.342 they do, he has one of the most important battles of his career at a place called Lodi. As the Austrians retreat, they leave a small rear guard in this town called Lodi and it sits right on a river and only has one narrow bridge across it. 🎙 00:30:26.342 - 00:30:42.002 So they think that they can keep Napoleon from chasing them with a small detachment because you can defend a bridge with very few men. and if you think about it, you understand why. Think about what it would be like 🎙 00:30:42.002 - 00:30:51.830 to charge across this bridge. The enemies got cannon set up on the end and you're going to be m