Posted on 08/18/2019 7:33:20 PM PDT by Perseverando
After his education, he was commissioned in the French military in 1785, and quickly advanced.
Napoleon's expertise in the use of mobile artillery and the military tactics of "envelopment" and "divide and conquer" resulted in him becoming one of the greatest military commanders of all time.
Beginning in 1792, France experienced a Reign of Terror.
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were were beheaded in 1793.
When the French Revolution began, Napoleon was an artillery officer.
In April of 1795, Napoleon was ordered to help smash a counter-revolution of Catholic royalists in War in the Vendée. Napoleon claimed to be in poor health and so did not participate in the butchery of an estimated 300,000.
France had an alliance with the Muslim Turkish Ottoman Empire, begun in 1536 between King Francis I and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
The treaty was considered a blasphemous scandal by the rest of Christian Europe, nevertheless, it continued for most of two and a half centuries.
In early fall of 1795, Napoleon was ordered to go to the Ottoman capital in Constantinople, to upgrade the military with his artillery expertise. Napoleon refused.
One wonders how different history would have been had Napoleon's artillery expertise been in the service of the Turkish Sultan.
In Paris, a crowd of royalist counter-revolutionaries gathered in the streets. On October 5, 1795, Napoleon ordered cannons to be fired at them.
1,400 royalists died and the rest fled.
Napoleon reportedly commented that he had cleared the streets with "a whiff of grapeshot."
The new French government, called the Directory, quickly promoted Napoleon.
Meanwhile, at the same time as the French Revolution, a slave revolt erupted on the French island of Haiti (Saint-Domingue).
(Excerpt) Read more at myemail.constantcontact.com ...
Except this is French History. And Napoleon wasn’t French. He was Corsican.
L
His tactics are still studied today in military training. Is he the G.O.A.T? It’s very hard to say, as you have to consider Caesar, Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Sun Tzu. But in the modern era, yes Napoleon is the Greatest Of All Time.
Wasn’t he about four feet tall?
Bkmk
“Little men hitting each other. That’s what I like. “
We got ABBA, thanks to him.
In 1803, Napoleon was badly needing money for his army. He also feared Haiti's costly slave rebellion would spread to the French Louisiana Territory.
Napoleon decided to sell nearly a million square miles to the United States, during the administration of President Jefferson, for around $15 million dollars. This is known as the Louisiana Purchase.
He was 5 feet, 5 inches. Not exactly tall, but not the midget he’s been depicted as.
“But in the modern era, yes Napoleon is the Greatest Of All Time.”
Even though he lost half his army in the invasion of Russia?
Napoleon brought order to France. Good for him. But then he terrorized Europe from Spain to Moscow. And he ended his life exiled on a remote island.
So I really donn’t see all the adoration he gets today. Napoleon was a butcher, and a failed butcher at that.
The fact that he invaded Russia was an accomplishment in of itself.
Average at best.
Didn’t he just get a LOT of guys dead for no good reason and lose TIME after TIME at the end?
What a genius! :)
> Even though he lost half his army in the invasion of Russia? <
The estimates vary, but most historians think Napoleon lost around 80% of his army in Russia. I read an article awhile back that said they are still occasionally finding French bones along the retreat route.
Many, many men died for his failed dreams of glory.
But he definitely wasn’t a cheese-eating surrender monkey!
Napoleon: Italian by way of Corsica
Marie Curie: Polish
Yves Montand: Italian (real name Ivo Livi)
Charles Aznavour: Armenian
Great Frenchpersons all...
> Didn’t he just get a LOT of guys dead for no good reason and lose TIME after TIME at the end? <
That is my view as well (see post #16). Napoleon lost around 80% of his army in Russia. So he raised another army, which was decisively defeated at Leipzig. Then after he escaped from Elba, he raised yet another army. That army was decisively defeated at Waterloo.
This great “genius” caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men. And for what? For his own personal glory.
Amazing what he accomplished in 15 years.
History is defined by the will of single individuals.
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