Napoleon And The Unification of Europe - Matthew Zareczny - The Waterloo Association 2005
"I wished to found a European system, a European Code of Laws, a European judiciary: there would be but one people in Europe," declared Napoleon nearly 200 years before Europe finally unifies under the new currency of the European Union. The dream of a strong Europe in which the French, Spanish, Italians, and Germans coexist peacefully as a single united body is being realized today, but it is a dream that was held by Napoleon, based on his vast knowledge of history, and hoped for by many great men after him. Finally at the end of this century this dream is beginning to become a reality.
The Grand Empire of Napoleon replaced the ailing Holy Roman Empire which was basically a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. Napoleon had crowned himself emperor of the French in 1804 and in 1806, he ended the Holy Roman Empire once and for all by replacing it with the Confederation of the Rhine, a French protectorate. An admirer of Alexander the Great, Napoleon created a new system in Europe that in some ways mimicked the ancient Macedonian Empire. Just as Alexander was king of Macedon, hegemon of the Corinthian League, great king of Persia, and pharaoh of Egypt, Napoleon was emperor of France, King of Italy, mediator of the Swiss Confederation, and protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. It is also possible, had he succeeded in Russia, that he would have been protector of a Northern Confederation composed of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (a possible precursor to a new Polish kingdom), Sweden, and Denmark.
Alexander was not the only historical figure Napoleon emulated. Just like the Bourbons and Habsburgs before him, Napoleon placed his family and marshals on the thrones of other conquered European nations and he himself married an Austrian princess named Marie-Louise in 1810. His brother Joseph was King of Naples and then King of Spain; his sister Caroline and his marshal Murat were King of Naples; another brother, Louis, was King of Holland; and still another, Jerome, was King of Westphalia. One of Napoleon's marshals, Bernadotte, became King of Sweden, but he was an opponent of Napoleon facing him on the battlefield at Leipzig in 1813. All this territory was bound to Napoleon by personal and familial rule cemented by the strength of his Grand Army. With crushing victories like Mantua (1796-7), Austerlitz (1805), and Wagram (1809), Napoleon became a god of war, the Caesar of his time, and also like Caesar he dreamed of great projects that would carry on his memory for many years to come. He tried to make Paris the capital of the world and created beautiful monuments and buildings like the Arc de Triomphe and La Madeleine church. He planned others like the Bastille Elephant Fountain, a palace in Paris for his son, and another palace in what was to become the second city of the French Empire, Rome.
Like the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian the Great, Napoleon wished to give to his empire a unified code of law which is known as the Napoleonic Code, something which has influenced European law and even the law in Quebec and Louisiana to this day. To reward his subjects he created the Legion of Honor and like Charlemagne before him Napoleon was mindful to the importance of education and so he created the University of France and the baccalaureate exam. All of this was to create the memory of greatness that Napoleon wanted for his vast European empire.
Napoleon had wanted to conquer Europe (if not the world) and said,
"Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility."
This idea of "the United States of Europe" was one later picked up by Victor Hugo, Aristide Briand, and Winston Churchill. After suffering two World Wars which devastated Europe in the early half of this century, the people of Europe and their leaders finally realized the horrors of modern warfare and the absolute necessity to end disputes with the pen and not the sword. Further while the United States and the Soviet Union gained in importance during the Cold War, the once great European empires crumbled as their colonies gained independence. It became evident that the only way for the nations of Europe to play a prominent role in world affairs was to unify. By itself, Germany is an industrial powerhouse and by themselves the United Kingdom and France are militarily capable nations as nuclear powers and politically powerful as members of the United Nations' Security Council. But by themselves they cannot compete with the economic, military, and political dominance of the United States. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the only possible counterbalance to the United States is a unified Europe. As many European nations are allies to the United States and are members of NATO, having the two most powerful forces in the world as friends could lead to more peaceful resolutions of the world's problems. For Europe, its role in world affairs will once again be prominent and many of the old hatreds and rivalries amongst the great European states may finally begin to die. While Napoleon sought to create such a union through military victories like the Romans before him, perhaps by creating this union through peaceful diplomacy, it will not be swept away by the guns of war. Although each state of Europe may keep its language and culture, through a common coinage and common interests, there may at last truly be "but one people in Europe."
Far-Right Mythology:
The Protocols of The Elders of Zion
The 'Protocols of The Elders of Zion' was issued in 1903 by the Okhrana, the Imperial Russian Secret Service. It's supposed to reveal a Jewish plot to take over the world, but it was exposed as a forgery by the Times reporter Phillip Graves who traced it to the work of the French satirist Maurice Joly in 1921.
The Protocols was published and distributed by the Britons Publishing Co in the UK, by the Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment in National Socialist Germany, and by the industrialist Henry Ford in America. It's the Bible of the far-right, and just like the Bible, few people have actually read it.
The Kalergi Plan
Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi's infamous book 'Practical Idealism' was translated from the German in 2019 by Dimitra Ekmetsis, a former editor of the New Right Network who wrote 'Confessions of a High-Priced Call Girl'. It's published by Omnia Veritas, a far-right organisation.
An article on the Fascio website examines the plan.
https://fascio.substack.com/p/kalergi-the-most-misunderstood-man
"Many people misunderstood Kalergi's views, almost on purpose at times. He's become somewhat of a boogeyman for some political voices who cry about the supposed "Kalergi Plan" to create a "race-mixed Europe." Their only evidence, unsurprisingly, is an unsourced quote attributed to Kalergi where in it, he refers to himself as a Jew, which showcases its falsity as Kalergi was Austrian and Japanese, not Jewish. His wife later on was Jewish.
When Kalergi was talking about the future race of Europe being mixed, this was not him prescribing that mixing ought to occur. Rather it was a prediction he made based on the trajectory he saw Europe would take if Europe didn't unite.
As for the so-called Kalergi Plan, this is simply the concoction of naive, uneducated, or disingenuous White Nationalists, built on two passages taken out of context from one of Kalergi's forgotten and unread books, 'Practical Idealism', which appeared in 1925 on the back of WW1. The person who made up the Kalergi Myth was a QAnon (conspiracy theorist) woman named Dimitra Ekmektsis, in 'Practical Idealism: The Kalergi Plan to Destroy European Peoples'."
The Morganthau Plan
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In 1944 the American Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau proposed a plan to punish post-war Germany. It was briefly considered by FD Roosevelt and Winston Churchill but rejected by President Harry Truman (pictured) in 1947. Thousands of German prisoners of war died in Allied captivity, and thousands more were kept as slave labourers long after the war, but this inexcusable cruelty was not part of the Morganthau Plan.
In a scathing 'Newsweek' article of October 30th 1944, former British Union of Fascist supporter Maj Gen JFC Fuller wrote that the proposal would stiffen German resistance and extend the war:
"It raised the devil and this time the devil became a German. Though Eisenhower said "We come as conquerors not as oppressors," the politicians shouted: "We come as obliterators and hangmen." What would you Americans and we English have done had we stood in Germany's shoes? We should have done what she has done - set our backs to the wall of the Rhine and have fought like the devil."
Thankfully, Maj Gen Fuller's warning was heeded and Henry Morganthau's wicked plan was never implemented. Instead of destroying Germany the Americans introduced the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.
Far-right conspiracy theories have more to do with religion than politics. Their adherents have 'the gift of faith' and are untroubled by facts. They contend that their beliefs fit what's happening. Like the police, they make the evidence fit the crime.
Urban Legends
When Ron Hargrave applied to join the pre-war Imperial Fascist League he was interviewed by Arnold Leese who promptly measured his head with a tape measure. (Told by Alan Wells).
Making sure I was dressed in casual clothes I rendezvoused with Ken Merritt at New Cross Gate station, where we were to be picked up by Tyndall, Jordan and others in the Party's Landrover. Ken, who was also my unofficial minder, was wearing a sombrero and open-toe sandals. Tyndall and Jordan were not amused. (John Bean, Many Shades of Black).
I recall meeting him at Manchester's Piccadilly station. We walked out into the forecourt, and without hesitation he stepped into a taxi. A railway policeman remonstrated: "You can't do that sir. There's a long queue for taxis." "Queue, queue?" replied Mosley, "There's too much of that damned nonsense in this country!" And he was away before the astonished policeman could collect his thoughts and think of a suitable reply. (Jeffrey Hamm, Action Replay).
Civil Unrest
The miners' strike of 1984 - 85 started out peacefully enough but it soon turned violent. The miners used 'flying pickets' to enforce the strike, and the police adopted military tactics to confront them. There were many injuries on both sides before the miners ran out of money and were forced back to work. In those days the police wore their traditional uniforms including old-fashioned helmets that fell off as soon as things turned nasty.
Five years later the Poll Tax Riots saw the introduction of police trained in Israeli Defence Force methods. They were armed with riot shields, batons and pepper sprays and wore flack jackets and crash helmets, but they were still confronted by the rioters.
The riots of 2011 were a predominately black celebration of arson and looting. This time the police withdrew from the areas of conflict and let the rioters burn down Brixton, Croydon and several other town centres. Shopkeepers and property owners looked on helplessly as their homes and businesses were destroyed.
Now, a Public Order Act introduced by former Home Secretary Priti Patel has been passed. This will give the police extra powers to nip demonstrations in the bud.
The Tories obviously expect the current wave of strikes by railway workers, hospital staff, teachers and several other groups of workers, to lead to violence. They are recruiting more policemen and bringing in new laws, to control things, but on past performance we shouldn't expect too much of the police.
This situation is the result of thirteen years of austerity followed by rampant inflation. Another factor is the support for strikers from the middle class, something that was lacking in the miners' strike. This was anticipated by George Sorel (1847-1922) the revolutionary leader who hoped that the working class would inspire the middle class to join them in insurrection:
"The dangers which threaten the future of the world may be avoided if the proletariat, by their use of violence, manage to re-establish the division into classes , and to restore to the middle class something of its former energy, that is the great aim towards which the whole thought of men must be directed. Proletarian violence carried on as a pure and simple manifestation of the sentiment of the class war, appears thus as a very fine and heroic thing; it is at the service of the immemorial interests of civilisation. Let us salute the revolutionaries as the Greeks saluted the Spartan heroes who defended Thermopylae and helped to preserve the civilisation of the ancient world."
It will be interesting to see how things develop; will the trade unions get their act together, will the middle class support them, and will the police use their increased numbers, better training and equipment, to do their duty?
There have been acts of terrorism by psychopaths such as David Copeland the London Nail Bomber, Thomas Mair the killer of Jo Cox MP, and the fantasist Jack Renshaw who wanted to kill Rosie Cooper MP. But generally speaking the far-right movements are law abiding, and there's no truth in the idea that the government wants to outlaw firearms to prevent a revolution.
The nearest the UK came to a revolution was the great Chartist rally of 1848 at Kennington, South London. Tens of thousands of marchers attempted to deliver a petition to Queen Victoria, but confronted by armed police and troops they sang La Marseillaise and quietly dispersed.
Letter from British Democrat Adrian Romilly published in the Plymouth Evening Herald
The extraordinarily enthusiastic support for the visit by President Zelensky last Wednesday is an alarming demonstration of the Establishment’s backing for the conflict in Ukraine, a conflict that is in reality a war of Eastward NATO expansion in which young Ukrainians are the canon fodder. The Prime Minister has even gone so far as to say ‘nothing is off the table’ for Ukraine. I find this worrying, will Special Forces be inserted, are they already in Ukraine?
Imminent NATO expansion threatens even more burdens on member states of which we are, alas, a leading one.
With the anniversary of the Russian invasion upon us and no resolution of the conflict in sight, the drums of war grow louder. I believe further involvement is not in Britain’s interests. Instead, we should reduce, or better, eliminate our commitment to a conflict in which no vital interests of ours are at stake. Our entanglement in Ukraine is becoming ever more costly and we have plenty on the Home Front on which to spend our money.
Time to pull out from NATO? I think so! It bestows huge and increasingly dangerous burdens on us and, with the old Soviet Union a distant memory, few discernible benefits,
Yours truly,
A Romilly
Nation Revisited - https://nationrevisited.blogspot.com
European Outlook
All articles are by Bill Baillie unless otherwise stated. The opinions of guest writers are entirely their own. The editor reserves the right to shorten or otherwise amend articles submitted for publication. We seek reform by legal means according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19:
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