Why is he so significant?

Can anyone please let me know why Bonaparte is so famous?

Other urls found in this thread:

smithsonianmag.com/history/the-secret-plot-to-rescue-napoleon-by-submarine-1194764/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_enlightened_despots
research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/1869/Bartlett2001JMEMS31MedievalandModernConcepts.pdf;jsessionid=7F4FC343F6673D576D8D8DB7089043AB?sequence=1
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

he took on basically all the great powers in the world and almost got away with it
he also oversaw various reformation on adminstration and law including the napoleonic code
he also did some other significant stuff such as breeding zionism in syria,deghettoizing da joos and created the backdrop for a unified germany with the confederation of the rhine

How we think of the concept of "nationalism" can largely be attributed to his exploits. Modern German, Italian, Latin American and even Egyptian history were invariably shaped by his actions in said regions. He was also a huge proponent of secularism and instrumental in the idea's spread throughout much of Europe. If anything the fallout of Napoleon's conquests are more significant than any of the actual conquests themselves.

he introduced shitload of laws that functions to this day in many countries aka napoleonic code

blitzkriegd the fuck outta europe

A mini biography:

Part I: The Revolution

>Born into very minor nobility on Corsica in 1769 just after Corsica was bought by the French from the Genoese
>Hated the French when he was young and saw himself as a freedom fighter for Corsica
>Sent to France to attend a prestigious military academy
>Excelled at everything he studied despite being bullied by the other students for his Italian accent and being non-aristocratic
>Graduates and joins an academy for artillery officers
>Excels there as well, and joins the French army a couple of years before the Revolution breaks out
>His father dies when Napoleon is young, and Napoleon takes many very long leaves of absence to look after his family on Corsica
>Originally is loyal to the king (a Royalist) and suppresses several riots and protests from revolutionaries
>When things get out of control he switches sides and becomes a revolutionary (i.e. a Jacobin, the most hardcore of the revolutionaries)
>Witnesses the submission and humiliation of King Louis XVI at the Tuileries Palace and then the violent rampage and massacre that occurred there later, instilling in him a deep hatred of the "mob" (i.e. the common people when riled up)
>Takes part in the successful siege of Toulon, commanding the artillery in taking the city
>Takes part in a failed campaign to retake Sardinia
>Voices his disapproval when King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are executed
>Is out of work for a while and looked over for promotions
>Returns to Corsica and tries to create an uprising to throw out the French and declare Corsica an independent nation. It fails and he and his family are exiled to France

Fuck man there's so much

Napoleon Bonaparte was like Julius Caesar, Thomas Jefferson, and Joseph Stalin all rolled into one guy. His actions had enormous impact in France, in Europe, and in the world at large. Hegel called him "history on horseback" because within a matter of years he led the march of the Enlightenment from the Paris coffee-houses all the way to Moscow.

Besides the obvious stuff like seizing control of France, escaping prison to form a new army, and conquering the European continent, Napoleon left a totally irreversible mark on world history by:
>Defending the French Revolution and legitimizing liberalism
>Separating church and state
>Prioritizing the bourgeoisie (business owners) over traditional aristocrats
>Revolutionizing the use of canons and massive conscripted armies
>Establishing Europe's most comprehensive legal system, practiced by 2/3 of the world today
>Giving full rights to Jews and Protestants, basically inventing the idea of modern religious pluralism
>Putting the HRE into a sausage press, churning out 30 states all following the same laws
>Inspiring a generation of other liberals to abolish feudal traditions in their own countries

I don't like great man theory, but so much of the 19th century occurred, at least the way it did, because of Napoleon's actions

Part II: The Italian and Egyptian Campaigns

>A huge mob of around ten thousand gathers to overthrow the current revolutionary government and install a new one (this would happen a lot).
Napoleon is the only officer in Paris brave enough to stop it. With only a fraction of the men that the mob has, he opens with on them with grapeshot and massacres hundreds of them, scattering the mob and saving the government
>As a reward he is married off to Josephine Beauharnais, a noblewoman whose husband was executed in the Reign of Terror
>He's also promoted to the rank of general, the youngest in French history
>A couple of days after his wedding he rides to Italy to take command of the Army of Italy in the war against Austria in Northern Italy
>Spends a year and a half btfo the Austrians and winning every battle he fights, despite being outnumbered most of the time
>Destroys the 1,000 year old Republic of Venice and creates several small Italian republics
>The Austrians sue for peace and the French Republic gains heaps of territory in Northern Italy thanks to Napoleon
>Napoleon returns to Paris a national hero
>The War of the First Coalition is over, with a French victory
>Napoleon is given command of an invasion force to conquer Egypt to disrupt British trade
>Lands in Egypt, captures Alexandria, wins several battles and captures Cairo, the capital of Egypt
>Is going to leave to return to France but Horatio Nelson completely destroys his entire fleet, so Napoleon and the French army are stranded in Egypt
>Expecting the Ottomans to march to recapture Egypt, Napoleon preempts them by marching into Palestine and capturing a few towns
>Gets bogged down in the siege of Acre and is forced to retreat. This is the first loss of his career
>When he arrives back in Cairo he gets news that war has broken out in Europe again. He escapes Egypt on a single boat and avoids Nelson's fleet, landing in France and hurrying back to Paris

Because he's a big guy

Part III: Rise to Power

>Public mood has completely turned against the government, which is very corrupt and mostly incompetent
>Seeing his opportunity, Napoleon plots with several leading politicians and generals to seize control of the government
>Napoleon marches into the Senate Chamber with several soldiers and declares the current overthrown and that he and two other men would rule France as consuls
>Convinces/buys off these other two consuls to retire so Napoleon is the sole consul
>Gets almost universal public approval from the French people when they find out what happened
>Declares the Revolution to be officially over
>Takes command of the army and - to emulate Hannibal and Charlemagne - marches through the Alps to take the Austrians in Northern Italy by surprise
>Wins a victory at Marengo in 1800 and the Austrians sue for peace a while later
>The British finally accept a peace deal at Amiens in 1802
>The War of the Second Coalition is over and Europe is finally at peace again
>Sends heaps of troops to crush the slave rebellion in Haiti, but they are all defeated and France gives up on trying to recapture the island
>Completely overhauls the French legal system and creates the Napoleonic Code, the largest and most progressive legal code in history, which is still used in France and many other countries today
>Brings an end to the violence and hatred against Catholics, and brings about a reconciliation with the Catholic Church
>Survives several assassination attempts from both Royalists and Jacobins (basically both extremes of the political spectrum hated him)
>In 1804 the British are getting uppity again and war seems like it's on the horizon
>Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of the French in Notre Dame cathedral, with the Pope's approval
>Europe is horrified at this, and Britain, Austria and Russia declare war on the French Empire
>Napoleon takes command of his Grande Armée and marches across the Rhine to meet them in battle

>When he arrives back in Cairo he gets news that war has broken out in Europe again. He escapes Egypt on a single boat and avoids Nelson's fleet, landing in France and hurrying back to Paris

So he just left his forces in Cairo?
Btw don't stop this is really great stuff

Pretty much yea. He got on a boat and said he was coming back then never did. The entire expedition was a failure.

He does the same thing in Russia.

Part IV: Master of Europe

>Absolutely smashes the combined Austrian-Russian army at the battle of Austerlitz (his greatest victory), at which both the Austrian and Russian emperors were present (giving the battle the unofficial name of "The Battle of the Three Emperors")
>Captures Vienna and forces Austria to sue for a peace in which Austria cedes France Dalmatia and more lands in Northern Italy, from which Napoleon creates the Kingdom of Italy, which he crowns himself the king of
>The 1,000 year old Holy Roman Empire is also dismantled, since Napoleon took most of their German lands and created the Confederation of the Rhine, a huge series of buffer states between France and central Europe that were essentially French vassals
>Plans an invasion of Great Britain, but his fleet is completely destroyed yet again by Horatio Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, the greatest naval victory in history
>Since he can't invade Britain, he decides to mess with their economy by creating a continent-wide trade embargo against the British, forcing every country to abide by it
>Portugal - a long-time British ally - refuses to, and Napoleon invades them with the Spanish (who are his allies). The Portuguese royal family flees to Brazil
>Napoleon turns on the Spanish and overthrows the King of Spain, putting his own brother Joseph on the throne instead
>The country is outraged and there is guerrilla warfare everywhere, which the French are unable to crush
>The Pope excommunicates Napoleon for this and calls him the Antichrist, to which in response Napoleon has troops march into Rome and arrest the Pope
>Fights several more wars from 1807 to 1809 against Prussia, Russia and Austria, winning all of them
>Forms an alliance with Russia and makes them blockade Britain
>Divorces his wife Josephine and marries Marie-Louise, the daughter of the Austrian emperor
>In 1810 Napoleon is the master of Europe, since aside from some guerrilla action in Spain he has completely subdued the continent

Part V: The Invasion of Russia (i)

>The British send a large army commanded by Arthur Wellington to invade Spain to reconquer it from the French
>The Russian economy is screwed because of the trade embargo Napoleon forced them to abide by, and they refuse to follow it anymore and resume trading with Britain
>Napoleon is furious and demands they stop trading
>They refuse, and begin making aggressive moves by putting thousands of troops on the border of the Duchy of Warsaw (a small Polish client state Napoleon created a few years ago)
>Napoleon realises that war is inevitable and marches towards Russia at the head of 700,000 soldiers, the largest army in history, made up of soldiers from all over Europe
>Many of his generals advise against an invasion of Russia, but having beat them several times before Napoleon is confident of victory
>The Grande Armée crosses the Nieman River, officially entering Russian territory
>They begin marching on Moscow, but the oppressive summer heat spreads disease everywhere and wipes out an insane amount of troops
>They capture several Russian towns and make Smolensk their base of operations, since it's a major supply depot
>Napoleon wants a pitched battle with the Russians but they keep avoiding him, burning all the farmland as they go deeper into Russia so the French can't live off the land
>They finally catch up to them at the small village of Borodino in the spring of 1812, and the battle is the largest in European history up to that point, with horrific losses on both sides. The battle goes for two days and Napoleon only wins because the Russians retreat (though Napoleon's army is too tired to chase them down to get a rout)
>The French enter Moscow to find it completely deserted
>Napoleon waits for weeks for a peace delegation to arrive, but none do
>Suddenly the city erupts in flames, and several Russian arsonists and caught and executed

This is awesome

keep going, kudos for how interesting this is

Part VI: The Invasion of Russia (ii)

>Napoleon realizes he can't keep his army there for the winter with no supplies or shelter, and orders a general retreat back to Smolensk
>He delays the retreat for too long, however, and by the time they start marching back the first snows start falling
>In a stroke of bad luck, the winter of 1812 is the worst in recorded history and has started very early
>As the French freeze and starve on the retreat, the still in-tact Russian army harasses their flanks and their rear
>All semblance of order breaks down as soldiers abandon the marching columns and try to flee on their own, most ending up being caught and horrifically tortured by Russian peasants
>Food completely runs out, and when all the horses are killed and eaten, soldiers start eating the freshly dead corpses of their comrades
>Napoleon is so shaken he barely interacts with anyone
>They reach Smolensk with a fraction of the army they left Moscow with and Napoleon orders a complete withdrawal from Russia
>With the Russian army right behind them the French rush to a large river dividing Russia from Poland, but the Russians destroyed the bridges there
>The French engineers desperately build new bridges as the Russians close in
>Napoleon personally supervises the crossing of his army and is one of the last people over
>His soldiers curse at him and threaten him as they cross, feeling absolute hatred for him
>He keeps his head down and says nothing
>The Russian army arrives and Napoleon orders the bridges destroyed, unfortunately leaving some French on the other side, who are all slaughtered
>Napoleon rides back into Poland and receives a report that he is rumoured to be dead and that there has been an attempted coup in Paris
>With only one of his aides-de-camp he jumps in a carriage and hurries back west

Part VII: The Defense of France

>Napoleon rides back into Paris to the shock of many, who thought him dead
>He discovers that a group of senators tries to overthrow him, but that some loyal followers of his stopped it from happening
>Napoleon realises how fucked he is, since of the 700,000 soldiers that crossed into Russia only 17,000 left
>He gets his wife to write to her father the Austrian emperor, begging him to remain loyal to the French
>Meanwhile the Russians have invaded Poland and occupied it unchallenged
>The writing is on the wall, and the British and Prussians begin preparing for renewed war
>Wellington has mostly won in Spain and is preparing to enter France from the south
>Napoleon rallies the French people and raises a new army of a couple of hundred thousand and crosses the Rhine in early 1813
>The 1813 campaign in Germany against the Allied forces is going well for the French until the battle of Leipzig, a three-day battle (surpassing Borodino as the largest, bloodiest battle in history) in which the French are defeated by a vastly larger combined army of Austrians, Russians and Prussians
>Napoleon retreats back across the Rhine and prepares to defend France itself
>At this point there is no hope of victory: he has only about 50,000 against almost half a million
>Outnumbered and surrounded on all sides, he is determined to fight
>The Allies invade France and advance on Paris, which is put under lockdown
>With an army of only 25,000, Napoleon circles Paris and wins six battles in six days against forces up to four times as large as his own. This is his arguably his greatest moment at a commander
>The Allies are shocked at not triumphing over a weakened Napoleon, and consider retreating
>Suddenly the gates of Paris are opened; some members of the Senate did not want to withstand a siege, and they surrendered the city
>Napoleon was only half a day's march away
>The city is occupied by the Russians

...

Well, few people know that not only he's one of the greatest generals of all time, but he's the """"founder"""" of human rights and established law in a different way, with a new Law School.

holy shit what a ride!!! Thanks for taking the time user

You forgot
>In May 1798, Bonaparte was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. His Egyptian expedition included a group of 167 scientists, with mathematicians, naturalists, chemists, and geodesists among them. Their discoveries included the Rosetta Stone, and their work was published in the Description de l'Égypte in 1809.

Part VIII: The Fall and Return of Napoleon

>With nothing left to do, Napoleon is convinced by his few loyal generals left to abdicate the throne and surrender
>Napoleon does so, and that night tries to kill himself with poison, but the poison is out of date and he just vomits a bit
>He is is sent into exile on the tiny island of Elba, just off the coast of Italy
>The Bourbons are reinstated on the French throne, with the new king being Louis XVIII
>The French people are furious that he went back on dozens of Napoleon's greatest legal and social reforms, and has also raised taxes very high and dismissed most of the army
>There are public demonstrations calling for Napoleon to return, which are suppressed by the government
>On his little Mediterranean island Napoleon receives fractured and vague reports of this, and knows now is the time
>He tricks his British captors and while they're away on business elsewhere hops on a small ship and sets sail back to France
>He lands on French soil and begins marching in-land
>A contingent of the army is sent to stop Napoleon; when he sees the army before him, Napoleon pulls open his coat and cries out for them to shoot their emperor if they want, and to this the soldiers burst into tears, throw down their weapons and rally around him
>This happens another dozen times as Napoleon continues the march to Paris with an ever- increasing army around him
>King Louis XVIII hears of this, panics and flees Paris in the middle of the night
>Napoleon re-enters Paris and is reinstated as the Emperor of the French, without having fired a single shot

Part IX: The Final Defeat of Napoleon

>Napoleon sends letters to the European powers offering to keep France contained to its natural borders if they give him peace
>They refuse
>The War of the Seventh Coalition is declared, with every single European country declaring war on Napoleon - not on France, but on Napoleon himself
>Napoleon marches out from Paris and heads to the lands that would be Belgium, hoping to capture Bruges and bolster his army with new troops there
>Since the Austrians and Russians will take a long time to reach France, the British and Prussians decide to take on Napoleon themselves
>The British army is commanded by Wellington, and the Prussian army commanded by Blucher.
>Napoleon knows he must keep the two armies separate from each other, so he can take them out one by one
>He wins a couple of small victories over them, succeeding in keeping them away from each other
>The major battle is to be near the small village of Waterloo
>Unfortunately it rains the night before, so the next day Napoleon has to wait until midday for the ground to dry to get his artillery into position
>This cost him a lot, since the British were already in position
>A huge battle occurs, in which Napoleon still almost wins, but then the Prussians suddenly appear, and Napoleon realizes it's lost
>His army is completely routed and he flees
>He surrenders a few days later to the British, and not wanting to make the same mistake they did before, they exile him to the tiny rock island of St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic, the furthest point away from anything ever
>He sits there in miserable exile for six years, from 1815 to 1821, when he dies on stomach cancer. He was 51
>The few loyal ones that voluntarily followed him there weep at his death and give him a small burial on the island
>They were forbidden from writing "Emperor" on the tombstone, so they left it unmarked

user you are absolutely based.

One thing I never quite understood is why he was so insistent on the continental system to the point of alienating signifiacnt powers like Russia. Okay, so Britain has more trade, they're a bit stronger. Without someone on the continent to do the hard fighting, they can't do much more than annoy him in Paris. And he was embarked on a absolutely fucking MASSIVE shipbuilding campaign, he had already completed something like 80 ships of the line by 1814 in the aftermath of the disaster at trafalgar. Why risk so much to close Arkanghelsk?

Wasn't Catalonia part of the empire ?

There was a plot to smuggle him out of St. Helena through an early submarine and land him in Mexico.

Thanks. I absolutely love Napoleon so this was really fun.

He's probably the greatest general ever

He invented France, the color blue, and... pants fuck.

In Israel we're taught that Napoleon was the "first modern man" who tried to "introduce civilization before the rest of the world was ready". He's revered like a saint.

Then I come over to US, and everyone thinks he's a midget Hitler.

smithsonianmag.com/history/the-secret-plot-to-rescue-napoleon-by-submarine-1194764/

Napoleon gave the Jews equal rights and legal protection (which basically no other country did), so it's not surprising he is revered there.

irrelevant. he modernized france's armies and BTFO of a coalition of europe's most powerful monarchies. the jews of that time are of little import.

>submarine in 1806
Literal sorcery

in a metric of the most great battle fought (austerlitz,friedland,dresden etc) he's on top
he also fought mostly with forces on par with him

he did some dumb things to like trying to reinstate slavery in haiti,dismissing the steam engine etc
and he also let his officer corps and chief of staff to be stuck in a rut
but still he was truly terrific,one of the few people who had an era named after him

Hope this is screencapped along with his other posts. Very informative

I don't understand why Napoleon is seen as that either.

From my perspective he abolished the Republic of Dubrovnik, which was a dick move. On the other hand Croats basically welcomed him and his reforms because at that particular time there were some issues I can't really remember well, something about serfdom and such. Basically the whole internal clusterfuck of resentment and various other issues was resolved through his laws and the people benefited from the occupation. There was no hatred or our typical guerrila style insanity.

Also fuck the Turks.

It's Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. Not Arthur Wellington.

Keep going though this is good

American education in a nutshell
You have to take advanced classes in HS to not learn meme history and then it mainly focuses on social, economic and political theories.

I was kind of tired from writing heaps non-stop. I realised that mistake when I re-read it after I posted it.

>change sides several times
>brutally massacre hundreds of civilians to restore order
>ditch your own army
>marry your enemies daughter
>conquer prety much the whole civilized world
>invade russia with no idea of what the fuck you’re doing
>ditch your army again
>btfo the enemy but get betrayed
>return and convince the people to support you
>the enemy is so fearful they send you to a desert island to stop you from doing it again
based af

his use of propaganda and cultivated image contributed a lot to romanticism

One-man-show who singlehandedly, by his own way, conquered almost all of Europe. At least put it in great peril where literally every other nation were unsure about their future existence.

After being stopped once he returned again.

A remarkable character.

as a pockmarked emo teen he wrote in his diary poetry and letters all about how the people just don't understand him, that he can be the best thing ever if only people give him a chance and that he will show everyone who laughed at him.

then it turned out to be true

We mostly just focus on the military and "cult of personality" attributes

>jews of that time are of little import
>talking about israel
Are you fucking retarded?

someone pls screencap this

Absolutely beautiful, user. You make Veeky Forums a better place.

Napoleon was certainly a great man, but that does not mean that he was a good man. Americans, being Anglos, feel this instinctively.

He truly is, dare I say it, the user of Destiny.

>80 ships of the line by 1814 in the aftermath of the disaster at trafalgar.
It's not ships, it's the sailors who are irreplaceable. Similar to Battle of Lepanto in 16th century, Ottomans rebuilt the fleet they lost quickly, but they had lost most of the experienced sailors and that ended their naval dominance.

Reading about his teen years, I feel like Napoleon would feel right at home on Veeky Forums.

I think this is exaggerating the radical/liberal impact of Napoleon. Yes, he saw himself as the child of the Revolution, but he did also see himself as inheritor of the traditions of an older Europe--he wanted to be both, effectively. In some aspects he was liberal, but in others he channeled and directed recently unleashed powers and forces (of the mass), and even curtailed them somewhat.

He was a bit of a contradiction desu.

I will add that the Napoleonic period is certainly the most centralized period ever.
Napoleon took care of absolutely everything, his generals were only executors of his orders
It is necessary to realize his incredible intellectual capacity to manage such an army (hundred thousand soldiers +). Under normal circumstances this work requires several men but Napoleon did it alone. Every transmitted order was skilfully drafted so that the marshals have exactly information adapted to their needs neither more, nor less!
Furthermore, he was often interrupted in mid-battle to solve internal problems of the empire -economic, social, justice... -
He was literally a living-player of RPG with as game board, whole Europe.

I also recommend you to look at some of his speeches which could stimulate any man:

For instance:
"Soldiers: You are one of the wings of the Army of England. You have made war in the mountains, plains, and cities. It remains to make it on the ocean. The Roman legions, whom you have often imitated, but never yet equaled, combated Carthage, by turns, on the seas and on the plains of Zama. Victory never deserted their standards, because they never ceased to be brave, patient, and united. Soldiers, the eyes of Europe are upon you. You have great destinies to accomplish, battles to fight, dangers and fatigues to overcome. You are about to do more than you have yet done, for the prosperity of your country, the happiness of man, and for your own glory"

After Austerlitz battle:
"Soldiers: I am satisfied with you. In the Battle of Austerlitz you have justified all that I expected from your intrepidity. You have decorated your eagles with immortal glory. An army of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been, in less than four hours, either cut in pieces or dispersed. Thus in two months the third coalition has been vanquished and dissolved. Peace can not now be far distant. But I will make only such a peace as gives us guarantee for our future, and secures rewards to our allies. When everything necessary to secure the happiness and prosperity of our country is obtained, I will lead you back to France. My people will behold you again with joy. It will be enough for one of you to say, 'I was at the battle of Austerlitz;' for all your fellow citizens to exclaim, 'There is a brave man.'

his speeches were all great
"From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us."

Except the bit about having a job.

Yankees are fond of the Louisiana Purchase and are thankful toward Napoleon for it.

Very good write up, I'm glad someone took the time

He tried the overland route at first but he got stuck in modern Syria. There were only one of two french ships so he had to leave most soldiers behind.

>his generals were only executors of his orders
Not completely true. There are cases in which Napoleon ordered his generals around from Paris but there are also cases in which individual generals/marshals showed a lot of innitiative and seized the moment. The Cavalry charge at Eylau for example.

>rhetoric about imitating Rome, warrior rhetoric, etc.
>liberal

This is what I mean. He was like an incarnation of two contradictory elements.

You just described the early USA though.

>Risen from literally (who?) on irrelevant island to become the greatest general in history, equal to Alexander the Great and Caesar
>BTFO tons of "Le royal blood" inbred monarchs and proved that the hundred year long ancestral dynastic blue blood is worthless and irrelevant
>Almost unified entire Europe and restoring The Roman Empire in early 19th century
>Was so much feared that the most powerful states in history needed 7 Coalition just to fucking stop this absolute madman
>Was so much loved by his people, that when he return back, his executionaries put him back one the throne
>Literally become better than God.

>He gets his wife to write to her father the Austrian emperor, begging him to remain loyal to the French

Didn't the austrians wanted to side with him but he was a dick to them so they went back at siding with the russians ?

>and everyone thinks he's a midget Hitler.

And it is not like that?

He betrayed his allies, attacked more than he could, had a cult of personality and killed thousands in unnecessary wars.

A benevolent dictator, if you will.

His enemies were worse

>everyone thinks he's a midget Hitler.
Napoleon was literally the Hitler before Hitler though, especially in the pop-culture sense of "the historical kook dictator who tried to conquer Europe"/"the uncomplicated bad guy of the story/wargame/children playing".

It shouldn't be surprising that it's most prevalent among anglos either since they were the ones who fought him the hardest. Confusion to Boney!

>one of the greatest generals of all time
>probably the greatest general ever
>Napoleon took care of absolutely everything, his generals were only executors of his orders
>the greatest general in history

This meme is the worst, several of his own marshals were better generals than he was. Massena, Davout, Lannes, Mortier and arguably even Augereau were superior to him. Davout in particular managed a greater feat at Auerstädt than Napoleon ever did.

>I think this is exaggerating the radical/liberal impact of Napoleon. Yes, he saw himself as the child of the Revolution, but he did also see himself as inheritor of the traditions of an older Europe--he wanted to be both, effectively. In some aspects he was liberal, but in others he channeled and directed recently unleashed powers and forces (of the mass), and even curtailed them somewhat.

He kind of saved liberalism from the revolutionaries.

But he wasn't. Per letters commoners and his soldiers would banter/insult him to his face, which was unheard of back then. When he was exiled in Elba and Louis was on the throne, the French hated how he had undone all the progress and reforms done by Napoleon and welcomed him back upon his return. He got rid of laws that impacted Jews negatively and gave them rights. He was hated by the old-school Monarchy for being a nobody who made it far enough to lead an Empire, humiliated them in battle, and was dismantling their systems of feudalism wherever he went. The English hated him for being an actual threat to their power and financial control. The Catholic Church hated him for the same reasons as the English.

Napoleon's conquests at most were defensive campaigns from the threat of Austria or Russia and when it was an offensive one, he was defeated in Russia when he was forced to retreat. The most common thing he had with say /pol/tards was his sexist attitudes towards women, but after Josephine's infidelity that made him a cuck, I can see why he thought that way. I don't think the world has ever witnessed such a based leader.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_enlightened_despots

>ywn be such an absolute madman that every nation in Europe declares war on you personally

>commanders think tactics, generals think logistics
There's a lot more to being the single head of an army than skill in winning battles. Especially when you're the head of state at the same time. Napoleon found skilled tacticians and put them into positions of command in order to best utilize their skills. Headhunting is an important skill for a general to have. You want reliable people to handle the battles so that you can focus on the full breadth of the war. Knowing which battles to fight and which sieges to break is more important for the head of the military to focus on, and thus be good at, than how all these individual instances need be won. Charisma is another important skill for a general to have, which Napoleon had in spades.

All of this is part of the reason why I feel George Washington also doesn't get enough credit. He was a mediocre tactician, but he was good at picking his battles and understanding how a war like the revolution needed to be fought. He was also good at keeping the army motivated and intact when shit got bad, and shit got bad quite often.

He also instituted several major modern institutions, including codes of law which form the basis of law today in dozens of countries around the world.

He also got cheated on a lot.

>commanders think tactics, generals think logistics
The marshals were literally generals, fool. Marshal is like a General+ rank. (Actually it wasn't technically a rank at all but an honor title for a distinguished general)

Sure he did, but he did a lot of his own too.

Still I don't blame him, Josephine was his world and cucked him so what else is a man left to do.

Also the letters he sent her, about describing her forest between the legs are a fun read, you can tell why he got along with Goethe so well

You're taking the terms too literally. The point is that they were still commanders subordinate to Napoleon himself. I'm just using the word "general" to describe that. I could say "head of the military" every time if that will satisfy your sperging.

Oh also, this is goalpost moving, as the original context was clearly praise for "his" battle tactics, as in for example.

>How we think of the concept of "nationalism" can largely be attributed to his exploits.
Kys, sperg. That concept is thousands of years old, you ignorant mong. Why do HS kids think they can post here and be taken seriously?

literally a jewish hitler

Flimsy wh*Toleon got BTFO by the BLACK SULTAN

>the best wh*Te general got BTFO not once but twice by the BLACK warrior

Cannot make this shit up

Yeah, he made conscription seen normal to other european powers. So in the following centuring everyone will be showing their power level sending thousands of man to kill each other.

many times on Veeky Forums people dispute when you say someone is "the greatest general"

but he's up there

>Under normal circumstances this work requires several men but Napoleon did it alone.
What about Berthier?

t. Brainlet

The furthest back we can attribute the concept of "nationalism", specifically the concept of the nation state, is to 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia.

Go read actual history and books. /pol/ infographics don't count.

In St. Helena, I forget who mentioned to Napoleon that Julius Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon would be mentioned in the annals of history, and Napoleon's eyes watered a bit because he managed to his childhood goal. I'll source it later when I get home.

Not that guy but it's not exactly that simple either. There are earlier examples of people invoking something similar to the idea that a people should in some way be part of a single country.

It turns into a mess if I just copy+paste it but an example is brought up on page 13 (of the pdf) here
research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/1869/Bartlett2001JMEMS31MedievalandModernConcepts.pdf;jsessionid=7F4FC343F6673D576D8D8DB7089043AB?sequence=1

Please for the love of god, someone recommend me a book about this man.

Napoleon A Life by Andrew Roberts

I was in this thread yesterday, and seeing this thread again legitimately gave me nostalgic memories. Reading this man's comments was better than watching a movie.

I hope I'm not the only one who's screencapped it

Imagine Hitler, but has actually something of value to contribute to the world, and was actually militarily successful, and his country was actually under threat by various forces when he took power

Seconding