Take a look at Josef II sometime.
Read about his security apparatus that he had going! Neat stuff, plus he was around for a while and saw Europe shift before him by the time of his death.
Still though, the some of the correlation I was drawing between Revolutionary/Napoleonic France & say, fascist Italy was the whole promotion by merit thing within their respective armies.
Before you say anything, I am quite aware of Nappy Bone's renege-ing on the promises of the revolution and the handing out of aristocratic titles. Weren't they handed out in the first place for achievements on the battlefield? I realize it's counter intuitive to do that, but hey
Taking advantage of a growing middle class seems to be something that's common within the dimestore characterizations of fascism (not saying my assessment's any better) and Napoleon seemed to utilize and prop up the middle class through the awarding of contracts and trade deals in France's favor. And then he had to be a dick with that whole Continental System.
Let's see, he quashed the press through secret police. But Josef already did that.
He repealed the more zany aspects of the French Revolution, like the Calendar, the abolition of the Church and clergy and then used them as a base for legitimacy and to appeal to the center, like what has happened with certain Latin American dictatorships and Franco.
There's probably more, but they don't come to me mind or you'd turn them around on me and shove them down my throat
Here's a follow-up question, not related, and I don't want to start a thread on it for fear of getting banned:
What are some leaders, politicians, and generals who have/had consumed cannabis? I ask because I'm tired of the only cannabis-using leaders ever being mentioned being the last 3 presidents.
I'm looking for stuff like Harun al-Rashid enjoying some hash, Victoria getting lifted on some tinctures and, Idk, a cuneiform of Hammurabi smoking a Philley?
). Iirc Austria didn't allow even that, so the titles were gone even in name.
