The Napoleonic Quarterly

What led to the Louisiana Purchase, one of the most important territorial acquisitions in world history? Prof Peter Kastor of Washington University in Saint Louis describes the build-up all the way to the negotiations in Paris, which we'll cover off in our main episode on Q2-1803 (out Wednesday 2nd 2025).

We're very excited, after such a long time working on this concept, to bring you the pilot for our new approach to battle episodes. Given 1802-4 is relatively quiet in military history terms, we're going to use this period to work our way through some of the key battles of the 1796 campaign, beginning with Bonaparte's victory at Montenotte in April.

Clemens Bemmann presents; Rick Schneid is our battlefield correspondent, reporting from Montenotte itself as the day develops; Graeme Callister is in the studio with Clemens as our French Army expert; and John (Jack) Gill is alongside him as our Austrian Army expert.

The result is our attempt to present battles in a novel audio format, bringing an immediacy to the story. This remains a work in progress, of course - we'll keep improving it to make it even better, and please let us know if you have any feedback to help with this by dropping us a line to napoleonicquarterly [at] gmail.com.

We'll aim to produce one of these every couple of months or so, so bear with us!

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1800. January… February… March… Three fateful months for the Hapsburgs, for Austria, and for the patchwork of territories east of the Rhine… In Switzerland the French impose a revised settlement in a bid to end years of unrest… And in the interior of modern-day Sri Lanka the Kingdom of Kandy is ready and waiting for the British as the ill-fated redcoats make their advance… this is episode 45 of the Napoleonic Quarterly - covering three historic months for Switzerland and for Germany.

[06:17] - headline developments

[25:40] - Michael Rowe on the Imperial Recess, the Reichsdeputationhauptschluss and the dividing-up of Germany

[51:40] - Biancamaria Fontana on the Act of Mediation and the re-establishing of cantonal government in Switzerland

[1:13:30] - Josh Provan on the British offensive against the Sri Lankan Kingdom of Kandy

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Ravindra Rathee's first book True To Their Salt wouldn't have come about without the extensive research he'd undertaken into the military career of his grandfather. The result is a fascinating study of the role Indian soldiers played in supporting the British, and in this discussion with Josh Provan Ravi reflects on elements of the complex dynamic between the two countries explored in the book. As we work our way through 1802-3 and beyond the Napoleonic Quarterly is paying careful attention to British ambitions in India, making this a timely exploration.

Bonaparte's decision to intervene in Switzerland in 1802 after years of unrest with the French-imposed Helvetic Republic led to a return to the kind of localist, cantonal government which the Swiss had always been more comfortable with. This bonus episode with Biancamaria Fontana of the University of Lausanne tells the story all the way up to the Act of Mediation, which features in episode 45 of this podcast - a positive story which, seen in isolation instead of the context of European affairs at the time, seems to reflect itself much more positively towards Napoleon than the British would have liked - or accepted.

Modern-day Germany was at a turning point in the Napoleonic period, with the French Revolutionary Wars prompting an enormous shake-up in which its various small-scale secular and ecclesiastical entities were gobbled up by bigger states. The change marked something of a no-going-back point for the Austrian-led Holy Roman Empire, and its historical resonances continue to this day - as regular listener and contributor Hans-Karl Weiss describes in this episode. He got to put his points to our interviewee, Dr Michael Rowe of King's College London, who was able to explain why this period was so important.

This bonus episode will be followed by a segment in ep45 on the Reichsdeputationhauptschluss, the key moment when the negotiations about the redrawing of the political map east of the Rhine was determined.

1802. October, November, December… Three months in which the full brutality of the French approach on Haiti becomes abundantly clear… Potential threats to British control of India are worrying Richard Wellesley… And in the wastes of Afghanistan a weakened empire is creating an opportunity for Richard Wellesley to exploit. This is episode 44 of the Napoleonic Quarterly - covering three months in which conflict beyond Europe sets the tone for the years to come.

[06:49] - Headline developments

[32:00] - Marlene Daut on Saint-Domingue strife as key black generals turn against the brutality of the French

[52:20] - Josh Provan on Afghanistan’s ailing Durrani Empire

[1:12:40] - Ravindra Rathee on the Treaty of Bassein between the British East India Company and the Maratha Confederacy’s Peshwa Baji Rao II

What were Napoleon Bonaparte's biggest achievements during the Consulate period from 1799 to 1804? Prof Emeritus Alan Forrest of the University of York sizes up the greatest hits: ending the Revolution, domestic reforms in administration, education, finance and justice - and one or two flops along the way, including a very partial resolution of the religious question.

Here's a link to Charles Esdaile's more general conversation with Alan Forrest, mentioned in this discussion.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-conversation-alan-forrest-and-charles-esdaile/id1547058446?i=1000656425026

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Bernie Campbell is joined by Rachel Blackman-Rogers and Olivier Aranda for a deep dive - pun intended - into the Battle of the Glorious First of June and the first major fleet action of the French Revolutionary Wars.

(**spoiler alert below**)

Hilary Mantel's novel A Place Of Greater Safety is, according to Oxford History of the French Revolution author William Doyle, one of the two greatest books about those turbulent years in Paris and France. Its exploration of the fascinating relationships between three of the revolution's most important figures - Georges-Jacques Danton, Camille Desmoulins and Maximilien Robespierre -  reveals so much about the importance of personality to politics during periods of crisis. Prof Doyle discusses what motivates these characters and indeed what drove the revolution itself forwards through all its tempestuous phases. 

Spoiler alert: You don't need to have read A Place Of Greater Safety to enjoy listening to this episode, because the novel is really a starting point for a discussion about its three protagonists rather than being the primary subject of this conversation. This episode anyhow reveals very little about the plot given it is a largely historical, chronological-based treatment. However, there is some discussion about the timing of the ending of the novel which might be viewed by some as a mild spoiler of sorts. To be honest it wouldn't have put me off listening to this before finishing the book, but others might feel differently - you have been warned!

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