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7th December 2017, 08:04 PM | #1 |
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What was Napoleon's ultimate aim?
Did Napoleon the First ever state exactly what his objective was or was it all reaction to events? What was his 'vision' for the look of Europe' if he had ever finished whatever he was trying to do?
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7th December 2017, 08:54 PM | #2 |
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8th December 2017, 04:56 AM | #3 |
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8th December 2017, 07:55 AM | #4 |
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They evolved. Remember, Napoleon did not start very many of his wars. His conquest-mindedness, IIRC, evolved from his military successes in initially defensive wars. He eviscerated those he perceived as a threat, and threw his political weight around to establish economic dominance and shut out the British. I think maintaining the Continental System was his most consistent goal - invading Russia was a matter of forcing an embargo on Britain (and securing Polish support).
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8th December 2017, 08:47 AM | #5 |
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Don't forget that the Spanish ulcer originated out of an attempt to force Portugal to comply with the continental system. His two greatest mistakes occurred because of his attempts to strike back against the British blockade.
His treatment of the Spanish King, Ferdinand, was also a prime reason in why the rest of Europe found it impossible to trust him/live in peace with him. |
8th December 2017, 08:50 AM | #6 |
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8th December 2017, 09:46 AM | #7 |
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A Thousand Year -- wait, how do you say "Reich" in French?
Godwin acknowledged. |
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8th December 2017, 02:12 PM | #8 |
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Thanks for all the replies and contributions - well except Trebuchet - who should have done a Benito instead of a Godwin and brought up Mussolini......
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8th December 2017, 02:27 PM | #9 |
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"The president’s voracious sexual appetite is the elephant that the president rides around on each and every day while pretending that it doesn’t exist." - Bill O'Reilly et al., Killing Kennedy |
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8th December 2017, 05:57 PM | #10 |
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Would this be an appropriate comment on Napoleon's goals - as spoken by and Englishman in 1840?
By Jove that Corsican upstart was trying to insulate the rabble's revolution and its eleemosynary ideas and hence the honour of France from the rightful condemnation of it sinful existence. He found in consequence that to defeat its many enemies he must therefore crush them utterly so they could offer no insult or sorrow to his adopted nation. Le Général Entrepreneur became fixated on defeating the unreachable British and in trying to subdue them with the Continental System led him to his greatest defeats in Spain and Russia where God I am sure confounded his efforts. Amen |
13th December 2017, 05:15 AM | #11 |
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Well, until Charles Oman's Big Tome on the Peninsular War (1903 ish), there was Napier's Big Tome on the Peninsular War (1830 ish)...and Napier was something of a Napoleon fanboy. It pretty much oozes from the page. I found it a trifle distracting when I read the first volume.
So he wouldn't have called Napoleon an "upstart", he'd have been too busy gushing about his military genius. Not to say that's how everyone would have viewed him, though. |
16th December 2017, 06:44 AM | #12 |
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On St. Helena Napoleon claimed to his entourage of fan boys and girls that his aim was to establish a democratic United States of Europe where Europeans could live in peace and amity. This plan was of course thwarted by evil reactionary aristocrats powerfully aided by the malevolent British.
What is truly remarkable is how many people accept this post-hoc piece of BS has describing Napoleon's actual aims during his years of power. Napoleon's actual aim during his years of power was to secure French hegemony in Europe by defeating the other European continental powers and then crushing Britain. During his period in power Napoleon showed and stated his contempt for democracy and his desire for domination of Europe, further his peace treaties with his defeated enemies were usually pretty exploitive and so was the continental system Napoleon set up. Napoleon in his years of power didn't want a Democratic United States of Europe but instead desired a exploitive empire dominated by France. |
16th December 2017, 11:32 AM | #13 |
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16th December 2017, 11:33 AM | #14 |
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16th December 2017, 11:47 AM | #15 |
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... er, that's it |
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16th December 2017, 12:44 PM | #16 |
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A federal Europe made up of 28 member states?
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16th December 2017, 01:25 PM | #17 |
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South
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