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Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)

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Poll Question: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)
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TheAlaniDragonRising View Drop Down
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)
    Posted: 19-Aug-2012 at 21:14
Love him or loath him, Napoleon Bonaparte is a conversational figure in history. This is your opportunity to have your say on the man and how he conducted his life.


 

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Corsica into a gentry family. Educated at military school, he was rapidly promoted and in 1796, was made commander of the French army in Italy, where he forced Austria and its allies to make peace. In 1798, Napoleon conquered Ottoman-ruled Egypt in an attempt to strike at British trade routes with India. He was stranded when his fleet was destroyed by the British at the Battle of the Nile.

France now faced a new coalition - Austria and Russia had allied with Britain. Napoleon returned to Paris where the government was in crisis. In a coup d'etat in November 1799, Napoleon became first consul. In 1802, he was made consul for life and two years later, emperor. He oversaw the centralisation of government, the creation of the Bank of France, the reinstatement of Roman Catholicism as the state religion and law reform with the Code Napoleon.

In 1800, he defeated the Austrians at Marengo. He then negotiated a general European peace which established French power on the continent. In 1803, Britain resumed war with France, later joined by Russia and Austria. Britain inflicted a naval defeat on the French at Trafalgar (1805) so Napoleon abandoned plans to invade England and turned on the Austro-Russian forces, defeating them at Austerlitz later the same year. He gained much new territory, including annexation of Prussian lands which ostensibly gave him control of Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Holland and Westphalia created, and over the next five years, Napoleon's relatives and loyalists were installed as leaders (in Holland, Westphalia, Italy, Naples, Spain and Sweden).

In 1810, he had his childless marriage to Josephine de Beauharnais annulled and married the daughter of the Austrian emperor in the hope of having an heir. A son, Napoleon, was born a year later.

The Peninsular War began in 1808. Costly French defeats over the next five years drained French military resources. Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 resulted in a disastrous retreat. The tide started to turn in favour of the allies and in March 1814, Paris fell. Napoleon went into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba. In March 1815 he escaped and marched on the French capital. The Battle of Waterloo ended his brief second reign. The British imprisoned him on the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died on 5 May 1821.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bonaparte_napoleon.shtml

What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote Delenda est Roma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Aug-2012 at 21:18
A brilliant man. Not just in military matters but law and mathematics and many others. As a military commander he was supreme and his foes acknowledged this. The code of laws known as the Napoleonic Code are still used today.
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Aug-2012 at 22:49
Given his era; his likes had not been seen since the great Frederick. And he remains constantly in the 'top five' of great soldiers by historians to this day. His most serious character flaw.. ie. His individual megalomania and ego, later in his career, directly led to his ultimate downfall. But his accomplishments as a soldier and ruler of France marked him far above the average description as tyrant and dictator he is so often labelled with.
 
 
 
Consequently from Chandler to Elting to Jomini and Ludwig throwing in Weider and Esposito among his numerous biographers and scholars; not to mention Johnson and Schom and Ross who comments superbly on his use of maneuver warfare; his reputation as a fighting man remains nearly peerless.
 
The loyalty he inspired in the common soldier, misguided or other as opined by the psycho-babbler revisionist haters of him, was without doubt also a key element in his success. Lee and Jackson came close but were pale shades in comparison.
 
And if you don't believe it then review the Battle of Eylau. Where he was essentially beaten. And yet the heroics of Augerau's Corp and Davout's magnificent force march in a howling and blinding blizzard to break the Russian left coupled with Murat's charge into the middle saved him his claim of victory. In  seriously studying 500 years of military battle and history...very few things compare to it....and like the epic defense and delay at St Vith under Bruce C. Clarke. Or Ney's rearguard on the Moscow Retreat....It remains astonishing.
 
Nobody.....with perhaps caveats for Alexander and Caesar, not even Lee or Washington, got that from his men. Except the 'little corporal'.
 
 
Genius? yes. And a lot more.
 
 
Egomaniac? yup and a lot more.
 
He remains the last of the Great Battle Captains.
 
I salute him.


Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 20-Aug-2012 at 02:05
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Aug-2012 at 04:26
I like him a lot - interesting ideas, not only as a general, but as a political man. Lots of fire and thrust, lots of dreams - I can respect that. I vote "great".
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  Quote Windemere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Aug-2012 at 14:10
Napoleon Bonaparte's Y-chromosome DNA was recently analyzed, and it's believed that it derives originally from Middle Eastern Saracen (Arab) ancestry. From there it spread to the Maghreb in North Africa, from there to Italy, and from there to Corsica. Italian immigrants have probably spread it into the countries to which they've immigrated.
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Sep-2012 at 12:47
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

S. T. Friedman


Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote Ramses XXIII Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2012 at 13:37
Love him since 5th standard, have been fascinated with him since then. I have read his AutoBiography. Payed games based on his campaigns. sometime just can't get over.

France saw a great revolution under his LEADERSHIP.
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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2012 at 15:05
24 caret arsehole
Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?

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  Quote Delenda est Roma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2012 at 15:10
Not exactly but he wasn't always a nice person
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  Quote Cheops Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 10:21
I think he was a brilliant man, with his code Napoléon and his introduction to surnames(at least here in the Netherlands he did). His ideas were revolutionary but I think it is good he was defeated at Waterloo because he would have become too powerful if he won.
In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons. -Herodotus
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  Quote Delenda est Roma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 10:35
Waterloo essentially din't matter at all.
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 10:55
Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially din't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 11:26
Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising

Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially don't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.
 
Yup.. because in the final analysis Wellington wasn't winning Waterloo... until Blucher won it for him.Wink
 
 
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 11:31
Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis

Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising

Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially don't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.
 
Yup.. because in the final analysis Wellington wasn't winning Waterloo... until Blucher won it for him.Wink
 
 

Very true, CV, but there must have been something about Wellington that had seven nations coming forward for him to run their armies.
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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 12:06
Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis

Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising

Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially don't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.
 
Yup.. because in the final analysis Wellington wasn't winning Waterloo... until Blucher won it for him.

By this analyses, Napoleon lost almost every battle he fought until he was saved by a late arriving force commanded by a marshal on the enemy flank.

Fact is both Wellington and Napoleon had the rare ability to pull off well timed pincer movements on the enemy, Waterloo was one such. 


Edited by Toltec - 25-Sep-2012 at 12:07
Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?

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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 13:24
Originally posted by Toltec

Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis

Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising

Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially don't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.
 
Yup.. because in the final analysis Wellington wasn't winning Waterloo... until Blucher won it for him.

By this analyses, Napoleon lost almost every battle he fought until he was saved by a late arriving force commanded by a marshal on the enemy flank.

Fact is both Wellington and Napoleon had the rare ability to pull off well timed pincer movements on the enemy, Waterloo was one such. 
 
 
 
Not the point I am making to Waterloo....but it was exemplary effort to defend the old Duke's shortcomings that day.
 
As to the latter correct; but that's more a factor of Bonaparte's use of 'maneuvering to gain the central position' strategically and then rejoining of separated forces, tactically, at the moment of decision ie. initial commitment. Which Wellington never was a master of.


Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 25-Sep-2012 at 13:24
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote Delenda est Roma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 19:54
Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising


Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially din't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.


Nope his loss was inevitable after he returned from Elba.
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  Quote Delenda est Roma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 19:56
Blucher's attack was NOT planned. He arrived oportunely not as part of a plan or schedule.
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Sep-2012 at 21:25
Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising


Originally posted by Delenda est Roma

Waterloo essentially din't matter at all.
Somehow I think it probably did matter to the boneys.


Nope his loss was inevitable after he returned from Elba.
Are you saying you don't think it mattered to his own fighting men?
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  Quote Delenda est Roma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Sep-2012 at 06:33
I'm saying his chances of winning after Elba were close to nil.
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