4 - The Age of Revolutions: Napoleon Bonaparte

Summary

Napoleon Bonaparte was not the initiator of the eighteenth-century European revolutions, nor the inventor of the ‘sister republics’.¹ Long before he became general-in-chief of the Army of Italy, and some years before the French Revolution, the European continent went through a series of spontaneous uprisings, which had more to do with the American War of Independence and the propaganda of American diplomats who sought allies on the continent and, to this end, circulated the New World’s credo and principles. In the 1780s, the Republic of Geneva and the United Provinces led the way to this revolutionary wave; Switzerland soon followed and faced several internal rebellions, which were repressed severely. All these revolts or revolutions failed. The traditional powers were still strong enough to suppress political upheavals and maintain their authority. Before Robert R. Palmer and Jacques Godechot, historians did not pay much attention to these aborted revolutions, still disqualified by some as being simply ‘a storm in a teacup’.