The author maps the history of the napoleonic Empire 'backwards', starting from the moments of genetic weakness which led to its "decline and fall". Among these moments: the weakness of a regime torn between the old monarchic legitimacy and the new republican rule of law; the establishment of an exclusive nationality principle, in accordance to which other territories of the Empire were exploited as mere strategic strongholds, instrumental to the assurance of France's natural borders; the processes of violent, cohercive "civilization", of economic and military exploitation to which subaltern states were submitted.