Bonaparte tailored colonial policy to contingent yields, not principle

Evidence

“My policy is to govern men the way most of them wish to be governed,” as this was the best way to “recognize the sovereignty of a people.” “It was by making myself Catholic that I ended the war in the Vendée, in making myself a Muslim that I established myself in Egypt,” he explained. “If I were governing a Jewish people,” he continued, “I would rebuild the temple of Solomon.” “And so I will speak of liberty in the free portion of Saint- Domingue [i.e., the French part]; I will confirm slavery in the Ile de France [the Indian Ocean colony where planters had successfully prevented the application of the 1794 emancipation decree], and even in the enslaved portion of Saint-Domingue [i.e., the Spanish portion], and I will reserve the right to soften and limit slavery, where I maintain it, and to reestablish order and introduce discipline, where I maintain liberty.” Such a policy, he added, would have advantages that would outweigh its disadvantages. “They may make less sugar than when they were slaves, but they provide us, and serve us as we need them, as soldiers. If we have one less sugar mill, we will have one more citadel occupied by friendly soldiers.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 918

Categorization

• QUESTION: The echo of his Vendée/Egypt pragmatism against the later, more absolute Napoleonic policy raises whether the pragmatism was real or retrospective framing.