On the origins of Napoleon Bonaparte

The single most important thing to understand regarding the background of Napoleon Bonaparte, is that he was born in the Mediterranean. And the Mediterranean, in the words of Fernand Braudel, is a sea ringed round by mountains¹.

With only a few exceptions the entire Mediterranean coastline is surrounded by the the high and wide mountain ranges. The Pyrenees, the Apennines, the Dinaric Alps, the Caucasus, the Taurus, the mountains of Lebanon, the Atlas, the Rif, and the Spanish Cordillera, to name a few.

We tend to think of climatic zones in terms of latitudinal zonation: north vs south. What you have in the highlands, however, is a strongly pronounced vertical zonation: up vs below.

Mountains were harsh, severe, impenetrable. They formed a sort of the “vertical north” in the otherwise mild region. Just a few miles away, in the coastal lowland, you had vineyards, and olives and citruses. Up in the highlands, you would have blizzards and avalanches, and meters of snow blocking all the connections with the outer world.

I like these drawings by Alexander Humboldt from his Tableu Physique

Coastal lowland would be mild, warm, enjoying the “Mediterranean” climate. Mountains, however, were nothing but mediterranean. They formed a sort of internal Arctic, or internal Siberia lying in a direct proximity to the coast. Now the thing about highlands is that they tend to be wide, often much wider compared to the relatively narrow coastal strip below.

Coastal lowland is mediterranean. Highlands are anything but

Mountains were poor, infertile². They would constantly generate a large population surplus they could not really feed. And that population surplus had to find a way to live off the lowlanders somehow. Highlanders would travel down to sell their labor as the agricultural workers, as the builders of Gothic cathedrals, or as the mercenaries of the lowland kings. Highland countries were the mercenary countries.

Switzerland, Albania or, in our case, Corsica were the classic mercenary countries.

Mountains were remote, disconnected, isolate. Coastal lowlands were well connected with each other through the sea lanes. Since the days of the Bronze Age, the maritime shipping was cheap, allowing to transport even the bulk goods at considerable distances. The shipping by land, in contrast, tend to be extremely expensive, and, in case of the mountains, prohibitively expensive.

Sea united the world, and the mountain ranges divided it

Now another thing to understand is that civilisation in the Mediterranean has always been a lowland phenomenon. Down in the coastal strip you had dense agricultural population, grain farming, cities, seaports, commerce, temples, religious and philosophical movements. And, of course, you had the state which, historically speaking, also worked as a lowland phenomenon.

All of these lowland institutions could relatively easily project their power through the vast water spaces. All of them, however, struggled to project their power even a few kilometres up. From the Greek poleis to the Roman Empire, from the Venetian Republic to the Ottomans, cities, kingdoms and empires were able to seize control over the coastal lowland. All of them found it extremely difficult to control the mountains.

Map of the Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonisation.

As a general rule, the lowland polities did not maintain permanent presence in the highlands. They could send there military expeditions to pacify the mountain raiders, to defend the trade routes, to seize natural resources or - uncannily often - to hunt for slaves. By and large, however, they did not stay there for long. By and large, the mountain expeditions were a costly and risky affair.

Projecting the power up was not impossible. Just legendarily difficult

Same could be said of the lowland culture, and the lowland religion. All of that struggled (or would not even attempt to) conquer the highland. As a result, the changes of creeds, languages or cultural memes in general affected the highland to a far, far lesser degree than the lowland. To a significant degree, the highlands remained an open air museum, permanently stuck in the past, centuries behind.

With all that in mind, we are ready to start our discussion on Napoleon Bonaparte.