Chapter 2315: The Deeds of Napoleon
“We have certainly heard of the deeds of Emperor Napoleon the Great, and I admire him greatly,” Older Brother Jayad said. He wasn’t speaking without basis; even when he was a starving, rags-clad child in the slums, he had heard people around him tell stories of Napoleon.
The impoverished people from the same slums said that under Napoleon, the French nation was rich and strong, its commoners all had homes, clothes, and enough to eat every day. There were no vagrants on the streets, and even beggars received government relief and work.
What they said contained some exaggeration and their own beautiful fantasies, but it wasn’t fundamentally wrong. In Napoleon’s era, France indeed placed greater importance on people’s livelihood and infrastructure than the Iberian Peninsula.
This stemmed from the more stable national culture of the French people. Romance and rebellion were rooted in their national bloodline; the French people were more sympathetic to the weak and more courageous in resisting injustice and oppression.
The direct reason was the famous Napoleonic Code, or the Civil Code. It contained a series of provisions protecting commoners’ property from infringement, ensuring social welfare and infrastructure, guaranteeing farmers’ land would not be seized, and establishing the rights and obligations of contracts, thereby confirming human rights equality through legal statutes.
To this day, the Napoleonic Code has undergone multiple revisions, making it more perfect. Such a code, to a certain extent, prevents feudal lords or capitalists from wantonly plundering and exploiting commoners.
With the protection of both morality and law, the lower-class people of the French Empire indeed lived considerably better than those in surrounding countries. Compared to the Iberian Peninsula, where the strong preyed on the weak and the poor were left to fend for themselves, it was like heaven.
In fact, let alone the French Empire with its rich cultural heritage, even from my observations in the Holy Roman Empire, the lower-class people there, though living quite miserably, were still better off than those in the Iberian Peninsula.
This was because of the high degree of industrialization within the Holy Roman Empire. Even noble lords were focused on opening factories and construction. Industrial products needed consumers, so they hired a large number of workers and were willing to share some wealth with them.
The Holy Roman Empire required a lot of labor. As long as a person had functional hands and feet, they could find a job. At the very least, working in a factory was possible. Whether it was hard work or not is another matter, but it at least allowed for basic survival. Many people from surrounding countries even went to the Holy Roman Empire to work.
Furthermore, the Holy Roman Empire was very decentralized, with numerous principalities. Their laws and development varied greatly. If a local lord’s territory was particularly underdeveloped, refugees could flee to more prosperous territories to eke out a living.
Compared to them, the Iberian Empire was quite disappointing. Despite being an old colonial power with many remaining colonies and extracting vast wealth from them, it couldn’t even provide its lowest classes with a basic standard of living.
Slums were prevalent in every city, and the poor lived in dire straits. It was possible that even civilians in the colonies lived better than them.
I heard that this policy was intended to force these people to seek a living in the colonies. Once they went to the colonies, these former poor people could instantly become upper-class individuals.
They had a high probability of being hired as civil servants by local administrators or being directly granted a piece of land to become self-sufficient farmers. In the future, they might even become minor lords, transforming directly from commoners to nobles and achieving class ascension.
Such legends were widely circulated in the slums, and they were indeed true. However, it was a pity that the government rarely organized these commoners into pioneering or immigrant groups. Although they had such a potential escape route, they lacked the ability or means to cross the oceans and go to the colonies.
Therefore, this path was now basically exclusive to the children of middle-class families who wished to start businesses abroad, or non-eldest sons without inheritance rights from noble families, and impoverished nobles. They were unwilling to share this upward mobility channel with others.
This resulted in those who wanted to leave having no way out, while the colonies outside were in need of people. Moreover, this path was paved with the exploitation of the blood and sweat of the indigenous population; the rise of some always came at the expense of plundering many others.
“Boss, the southern island of Sardinia belongs to the Kingdom of Aragon, and the northern island of Corsica belongs to Genoa. Which way are you heading?” the Old Captain asked.
“Huh? Corsica belongs to Genoa? I thought it was part of the French Empire because you mentioned earlier that it’s Emperor Napoleon the Great’s hometown,” Weis said in surprise.
She used to do dirty work for her father, so she knew some political matters, but not much. That’s why she asked this question. In her understanding, the hometown of an emperor would naturally be the most important directly governed territory, one that must be held firmly, just like Hesse Duchy.
“Yes, it has always been a disputed region. The French Empire has always wanted to acquire it. Not only that, but Aragon also has intentions to contend for it. Even other kingdoms on the Apennine Peninsula, like Florence, want both these islands,” the Old Captain said.
“Indeed, the French Empire has fought wars over it. In fact, the ownership of these two islands has changed hands several times. Genoa only managed to seize Corsica after joining the Holy Roman Empire. Therefore, it’s not strange for it to change owners again at some point,” Re also said, as she was well-versed in this history.
“Joined the Holy Roman Empire?” Weis asked in surprise. She was from the Holy Roman Empire but didn’t know about this.
“Yes, Genoa joined for a period, but later withdrew. It is said to be due to poor relations with a certain county nearby, but in reality, it was likely dissatisfaction with the Holy Roman Empire’s trade policies and an unwillingness to pay taxes,” Re analyzed.
The Holy Roman Empire, to attract surrounding nobles to join them, adopted very lenient admission and exit policies. As long as one was willing to accept the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire and swear an oath at the Imperial Diet, they could join.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands was such an affiliated state. Several large noble territories in eastern France separated from France during the power vacuum of the French Revolution and swore allegiance to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, though most were later reconquered by Napoleon.
Genoa likely joined the Holy Roman Empire around that time for self-protection and partitioned Corsica.
The French Empire, with its navy engaged in combat with the British Empire’s navy, and facing the natural barrier of the Alps to directly attack Genoa, was unable to launch an effective offensive. Thus, it could not reclaim its ancestral lands.
Speaking of which, Napoleon was an early supporter of Corsican independence and a separatist. It’s unexpected that he became the legitimate ruler of France; truly, the ways of the world are unpredictable.
