Napoleon Bonaparte, General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, and the Problem of Banditry in Piedmont, 1800–1802

Abstract

The Consulship of Napoleon Bonaparte is often presented as a time of his political triumph as both politician and legislator. However, this very stereotypical assessment requires further clarifications. As the latest research suggests, the whole period between the Brumaire and the proclamation of the Empire was a period of difficult search for new methods of governance under very difficult circumstances. One of the serious problems in the formation of the new borders of Napoleonic France in the early years of the nineteenth century continued to be banditry (brigandage). In a number of regions, this phenomenon had a distinct political colouring. In the French political lexicon of the era, it referred to collective violence of any kind, anti-state actions, as well as various forms of criminal robbery. The situation was most acute in the peripheral regions, particularly in Piedmont. Although the flames of the acute civil conflict of 1799 had subsided here, yet the causes of this mass phenomenon were extremely deep. The author aims to analyse the ways of solving the problem of banditry in the context of the overall Napoleonic policy, to show the role of the French administration and, in particular, of General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in this process during the formation of new institutions of power in the Consulate period. Drawing on the archival collections of the French Ministries of General Police and Justice, the Piedmont General Administration from the French National Archives, as well as some materials from the archival collections of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he attempts to reconstruct a set of measures to eradicate banditry. The new authorities, and above all the chief administrator of Piedmont, General Jourdan, as well as the prefects and mayors, had to resort both to the tactics of “mobile columns” and extraordinary justice, but also to seek compromise with the rural oligarchy, the parish clergy and the peasant masses in order to maintain the fragile social order. What is also significant is that the experience gained by the French in the fight against banditry in Piedmont was later successfully disseminated to other regions of Italy, and that it was this experience that largely served as the basis for the formation of Napoleon's policy of “cultural imperialism”.