Napoleon’s consolidation of Power

Coercion and control
1. Changes to the judiciary
  1. Judges to be appointed rather than elected – for life and kept subservient and loyal by combination of close supervision and rewards
  2. Criminal, commercial and penal code updated in same was as Civil Code – hard punishment e.g. hard labour, loss of right hand, branding
  3. arbitrary imprisonment without trial
  4. Prison population 16,000 by 1814 (3 times that of 1800)
2. Agents of coercion
  1. General Police
    1. surveillance and gathering intelligence on those suspected threats
    2. Imposition of censorship
    3. Search for army deserters and draft dodgers
  2. Prefects
    1. Head of each department
      1. appointed by Napoleon
      2. acted as agent of central government, nominates mayors and municipal council
      3. Oversees collection of taxes, enforcement of conscription, dissemination of propaganda
  3. Gendarmes
    1. 18,000 stationed throughout France
    2. maintenance of law and order, crime prevention
    3. but also helped gather information on threats
  4. Livret
    1. but also helped gather information on threats
    2. any worker wanting to move from one department to another needed official permission to do so
Patronage and Bribery
1. Legion d’honneur
  1. Created May 1802
  2. 15 cohorts each comprising 350 legionaries, 30 officers, 20 commanders, 7 grand officers
  3. Decorations and 250 francs annually
2. New title of Grand Dignitary created to officials of new imperial court (1804-08)
3. Estates given to Generals in Poland and Germany...
  1. maintaining the empire would mean maintaining their own power
4. Imperial nobility
  1. 1808 – all grand dignitaries became prices; archbishop became counts, mayors of large towns became barons and holders of the Legion d’Honneur became Chevaliers
  2. If new nobility paid, (200,000F in the case of a duke) the title could become hereditary
Censorship and propaganda
1. Control of the Press
  1. Jan 1800: reduced number of political journals published in Paris from 73 -13 (only 9 remained by the end of the year)
  2. 1811 only 4 Parisian journals and subject to police supervision
  3. No sources of information; reliance on news from military bulletins and Le Moniteur – official government newspaper
2. Censorship of books and plays
  1. anything to be published required 2 copies to be sent to censors
  2. printers forced to take out licence and swear an oath of loyalty to the government
  3. One poet consigned to mental asylum for writing the Great Napoleon is a great chameleon
  4. Majority of Paris’ theatres closed down
3. Propaganda
  1. Control of information
    1. Order of the Day - orders to soldiers under his command (but ‘leaked’ to press)
    2. Bulletin – addressed to the country at large
      1. Published in Le Moniteur
      2. Always exaggerated and self- promotion
  2. Artistic and architectural projects...
    1. Louvre rich with Italian art
    2. During Italian campaign (1797) Napoleon commissioned over 30 pictures  turned into postcards
    3. Once in power... Jacques Louis David appointed to oversee all artwork and assess its suitability
    4. Architecture: Place Vendome column to celebrate the battle of Austerlitz in 1805 , modelled on Trajan’s column, ancient Rome

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Napoleon’s consolidation of Power

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