'Vive la republique! Vive l'empereur!': Military culture and motivation in the armies of Napoleon, 1803--1808.

摘要

This dissertation answers two questions. First, how did the government of Napoleonic France endeavor to motivate French soldiers, and what kind of military culture did it construct for this purpose? Second, how did French soldiers respond to this military culture, and how did it mold their identities and influence their motivation. To answer these questions, this study analyzes the efforts of the Napoleonic state to construct and impose its military and political culture on the French army, and evaluates the impact of these measures. Military culture is defined as the set of ideas, beliefs, and practices that shape thought and action in the armed forces of a given society. This dissertation studies the formation and reception of Napoleonic military culture in three armies: the Army of the Coasts of the Ocean, the Army of Hanover, and the Grande Armee of 1805--1808. The victories of these armies allowed Napoleon to defeat his continental foes and establish French hegemony in Europe.; This study refutes the interpretation that dominates the existing literature on motivation in Napoleon's armies. Historians tend to emphasize Napoleon's betrayal of the French Revolution and the transformation of the French army into a professional force motivated by concepts of honor defined by self-interest. This dissertation proposes that over time, the Napoleonic regime did increasingly promote values such as honor, glory, and aggressive heterosexuality that were difficult to reconcile with the principles of the French Revolution. Napoleon also sought to restore traditional sources of military motivation in the army including esprit de corps and coercion that the Revolutionaries tried to suppress. This study demonstrates, however, that even as the Napoleonic regime strove to alter the character of the French army, it continued to inculcate ideals of virtue and patriotism from the French Revolution among French soldiers, and furthered the processes of nationalism initiated during the Revolution. Ultimately, it combined elements of Revolutionary military culture with martial values from the Old Regime to produce a synthesis that transmitted a representation of France as an imperialistic warrior nation whose soldiers were obligated to maintain its reputation and dominant position in the European order.