ABSTRACT
Napoleon cast a long shadow over the political landscape of the nineteenth century, and his influence was, in many ways, more direct in the turbulence of Latin America than in the Old World. The threat of a military coup hung over the Directory like a dark cloud almost from the outset. The army had intervened to support the politicians, but only their own, internal divisions prevented the army seizing power. The ‘squaring’ of the army and the muting of parliamentary life were the negative imperatives of Napoleonic power. The seminal German sociologist, Max Weber, discerned three basic classifications of political legitimacy: charisma, utility and tradition. Legitimacy based on tradition as commonly understood was beyond the Napoleonic dictatorship, and the regime was careful to avoid reference to it, even at Napoleon’s coronation. It was when it turned to a tumultuous present and a remote, classical past, that its legacy was greatest.
