Napoleon Bonaparte: The Use of National Power Instruments

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Table of Contents

Introduction
National Power Instruments: DIME
Diplomacy
Informational
Military
Economic
Summary
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction

Napoleonic Wars and his other actions may be classified using the system of national power instruments (DIME). It enables one to see how he directed his politics in Europe and understand the reasons for his success and eventual decline. DIME corresponds to the country’s diplomatic, informational, military, and economic resources. As French first council and then emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte used all those resources to establish French hegemony in early 19th century Europe and influence its political order for decades. However, while his influence remains strong even today, his hegemony lasted only slightly more than a decade. To understand why Napoleon rose and fell so quickly and brightly, one can use the DIME instruments to analyze his diplomatic, economic, and military politics and see their results.

National Power Instruments: DIME

National power instruments are used to reach national goals, and there are four of them specified: diplomacy, informational, military, and economics, DIME for short. It corresponds to all power resources available for the national government, and its division enables one to understand its strong and weak sides. Diplomatic instruments include embassies, policies, treaties, international recognition, and all indirect influences often called soft power. Informational instruments contain media resources, ideologies, propaganda, public, and military communication: everything connected with data and its influence on people. Military instruments include army, navy, security, and intelligence forces: their strengths, loyalty, training, and ability to perform military operations. Economic instruments are trade, fiscal, and monetary policies, the level of easiness of doing business and market development in the country, access to international markets, and all instruments enabling the country to influence the world economy. Therefore, DIME instruments used together and in balance allow a government to establish a strong political influence and improve the level of life of its citizens.

Diplomacy

After his military successes, Napoleon usually used unequal treaties to strengthen French positions and influence on a continent. He used the 1802 Amiens treaty to weaken Britain, forcing it to transfer several of its colonies to France and its allies and withdraw forces from Egypt. He planned to declare war and defeat Britain’s continental allies in the next couple of years, using his large military forces, to stop its sea domination in the world. Using his overwhelming and well-trained military powers, Napoleon entered the war with the Austrian and Russian empires and Prussia.

Eventually, France won it, imposing the 1807 Tilsit treaties, where the Prussian king and Russian tsar accepted French hegemony in Europe. The tsar was urged to break the alliance with England and withdraw military forces from Europe, while Prussia transferred some of its lands to France and its satellites. In 1808, French troops entered Spain, which tried to conduct independent politics, and managed a Bonapartist coup in it. In 1809, the war with Austria was ended by the Schönbrunn treaty, which made Austria weakened, transferred its territories to French client states, and urged it to engage in Continental Blockade. It was the peak of Napoleon’s power and French domination in Europe.

His primary objectives included keeping the territories of Belgium and Netherlands, conquered in the 1790s, and conquering other states, uniting them in one empire. In the case of Britain, he aimed to weaken it by Amiens treaty, which limited its colonial power, and Continental Blockade, limiting its trade abilities. While he posed his wars as liberation wars, for example, giving formal independence to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and granting lands to it after the Schönbrunn treaty, all those states were French puppet states. After Tilsit and, especially, Schönbrunn treaties, France started to openly dictate to other European states how they should build their politics, and French ambassadors became highly arrogant. In that way, Napoleon’s usage of diplomacy was aggressive and directed at establishing and keeping French hegemony over the European countries.

Informational

Napoleon used the French Revolution ideas of nationalism and equality under the law, together with authoritarian conservatism, as pillars for his informational politics and propaganda. In the early 1800s, Napoleon poses his wars as liberational, aimed at changing the old world based on independent kingdoms. Instead, a new world order should be based on law, progress, and efficiency, working for the good of all people. He imposed a strict censorship on all magazines and newspapers available on the territory under his control, and police forces checked all books and media imported there. Napoleon used them to justify his military campaigns as necessary for order and flourishment of Europe. His enemies, such as Austria, Prussia, and especially Britain, were depicted as weak and stagnant, and victories over them were emphasized, while French loses were keep silent. His actual desire was dominance over Europe, where all other countries were either French puppet states or unequal allies. However, he justified it with the idea that this would bring progress and order to Europe.

Military

Military instruments were the basis of Napoleon’s politics, which is often called the Napoleonic Wars. He started his career as a military commander during the French Revolution and earned fame and influence in the victorious battles of the 1790s. Mass conscription was a part of Napoleon’s politics: all male citizens were obligated to serve in the army, and there were also female soldiers there. French Army was large, well-equipped, trained, and significant perspectives of career advancements made it very motivated. His victories in the 1790s and 1800s resulted from his excellent tactics and strategy skills, proficient marshals and generals, and well-trained troops. His empire, especially in late years, was primarily based on a centralized power with a military aristocracy, which attracted people to the army even more.

However, such an overreliance on armies led to the situation when Napoleon used force to solve almost all situations, which gave him a poor reputation as a demolisher and occupant. Spain and Russia resisted Napoleon’s troops heavily and painfully: in Spain; he was obliged to use a significant portion of French armed forces to keep his power in 1808–1814. He lost almost all of his Grande Armée in his unsuccessful 1812 invasion of Russia. His allies and client states were loyal only due to his strength, and as soon as France became weakened, they turned against him. To summarize the military component of DIME in Napoleonic politics, one can see that it was the most important factor in it, influencing three other components. Eventually, Napoleon’s overreliance on this component became the reason for his failure.

Economic

Napoleon’s economic policies were based on the Continental Blockade, aimed at the trade intensification of continental Europe and the economic isolation of Great Britain. Other countries, such as Russia, Austria and Prussia, joined it unwillingly and only after they were defeated. The efficiency of the system was mixed, as many countries, such as Spain and Russia, did not follow the blockade and broke it when it was possible. In addition, there is evidence that conquered cities mostly lost their economic potential, as Napoleon tended to limit their freedom, such as in the case of the German city-state of Hamburg. The blockade was not only inefficient, but harmful for French hegemony, causing unrest in its various parts and limiting its economic activity. Great Britain, on the other hand, used its naval strength to overcome the blockade and was much more economically attractive due to its wealth and trade policies. Therefore, Napoleon’s economic politics and Continental Blockade were primarily unsuccessful and were a weak place in his power.

Summary

Napoleon used all four instruments of national power actively; however, military and to a less extent, diplomatic instruments were his favorite ones. His diplomatic position was harsh and aimed at establishing hegemonic domination in Europe. His information strategy was based on the propagation of his ideas of progress and social order, and his troops used information extensively to obtain advantages over the enemy. However, his overreliance on military methods and failure of economic politics, eventually, led to his loss and defeat, especially after his unsuccessful 1812 invasion of Russia.

Conclusion

Instruments of national power include diplomacy, informational, military, and economic (DIME); governments use them to reach their geopolitical goals, and Napoleon, as French first council and emperor, used them regularly. His military strength was overwhelming due to mass conscription, strong people’s patriotism, high-quality troop training, and excellent career perspectives in the army. He used progressive ideas of the French Revolution, even after becoming the emperor, as his ideology, establishing firm order and the rule of law on conquered territories.

However, Napoleon overused military instruments, his diplomatic position was overly aggressive, and economic politics was mostly unsuccessful due to the blockade failure and a lack of open competition and a free market. He used treaties only to severely limit French opponents or turn them into client states, initiating revolts and national wars for liberation, such as in Spain and Russia. While Napoleon managed to establish French hegemony in Europe in the 1800s, it was constantly challenged, and Great Britain’s economic and political power mainly had survived. Eventually, his defeat in the 1812 Russian campaign weakened the hegemony, and Napoleon’s army was ultimately defeated in 1814–1815, leading to the fall of his empire and the restoration of the French Kingdom.

Bibliography

Black, Jeremy. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

Forrest, Alan, Karen Hagemann, and Jane Rendall. Soldiers, Citizens and Civilians: Experiences and Perceptions of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1790–1820. Macmillan, 2009.

Mikaberidze, Alexander. The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Wade, Norman M. “Instruments of National Power.” The Lightning Press SMARTbooks, Web.

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