Napoleon’s ambitions plunged Europe into bloodshed for two decades, costing the lives of millions of conscripts and innocents alike, and his reign as Emperor set a blueprint for authoritarianism that would be copied over and over again.
Paine and Bonaparte’s paths first crossed due to a grand military plan for France to invade and overtake Britain that Paine had devised in 1798.
Many people know Paine as the author of Common Sense, The Crisis, and The Rights of Man. Fewer know him as an unapologetic opponent of slavery, paper money, and aristocratic privilege. Fewer still know he spent considerable time in both England and France – escaping death sentences in both countries – and finally returned to America in 1802.
Some may not realize that Thomas Paine once developed an obsession for a radical military strategy to invade England.
In Thomas Paine’s day, no idea was more accepted than the idea that the church was inextricably connected to the state. Even so, Paine argued the rigid bond between religion and state was a dire mistake for civilization.
Americans generally remember Thomas Paine as the renowned writer of Common Sense, the most persuasive and popular case for American independence from the British crown. However, many may be unaware that the radical political agitator later returned to his native Europe, where his actions led him to be sentenced to execution in both England and France.
