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Napoleon bicorne fetches €350k at auction!
https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2018/0619/971519-napoleon-hat/
https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2018/0619/971519-napoleon-hat/
While Napoléon may have had merits: in essence he was an army general whom commited a coup d'état, blew up the Republic to establish a brand new Empire, raged war against dozens of countries, occupied or even annexed these and replaced royal families with Bonapartes. A man who has enforced millions to conscript into obligatory military service and led them in hellish military campaigns with millions of deaths on battlefields in Europe, in deep Russia and the Orient as well at sea. A man whose policy inflicted a continental wide boycott with as result the Continent being in deep recession and crisis, with starving people, malnutrition, diseases and misery. A man who looted in occupied countries to fill France's museums, public buildings and spaces with stolen art.
Also that is Napoléon. So I would be careful with the claim that his legacy "demands respect".
I am always saddened that Napoleon is so frequently classified as a warmonger and dictator because it shows that people still fall for the political spin made 200 years ago.
Although it is difficult to have an accurate estimate, as many as 6 million people may have died or gone missing in the Napoleonic wars, which is a huge number by early 19th century standards and by no means "political spin". That in itself would justify Nopoleon's reputation as a warmonger.
Surely the people responsible for these deaths are those who started the wars; the Allies were the warmongers. Was Napoleon wrong to defend his country?
It's true that France was under severe threat during the revolutionary wars and like the Swedish King Karl XII he ended up feeling that big campaigns was necessary to pacify the enemies of his countries. This doesn't deflect from the crimes the French armies committed against the civil population during the Peninsular wars in Spain. Another aspect that people tend to overlook is the suffering Napoleon inflicted on his troops in Egypt whom he abandoned when better opportunities presented themselves in Paris or those tens of thousands of men that he left to die in Russia as he left them to try and get home themselves.Surely the people responsible for these deaths are those who started the wars; the Allies were the warmongers. Was Napoleon wrong to defend his country?
It's true that France was under severe threat during the revolutionary wars and like the Swedish King Karl XII he ended up feeling that big campaigns was necessary to pacify the enemies of his countries. This doesn't deflect from the crimes the French armies committed against the civil population during the Peninsular wars in Spain. Another aspect that people tend to overlook is the suffering Napoleon inflicted on his troops in Egypt whom he abandoned when better opportunities presented themselves in Paris or those tens of thousands of men that he left to die in Russia as he left them to try and get home themselves.
Napoleon was a great man, who's influence on modern Europe can't be overestimated, but his sun definitely had many spots.
It seems activists had warned a week ago that the statue of Empress Joséphine would be targeted.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1571563
But why? I dont know of any evidence that Josephine had any political influence on Napoleon.. She grew up in a slave owning society but i don't know of her trying to persuade N to re introduce it.. He would have done so for economic reasons...
The civil wedding of Napoleon and Josephine occurred on March 9, 1796.
Empress Josephine was told by Emperor Napoleon I that he is compelled to annul their marriage.
http://www.maryevans.com/history/Josephine-has-bad-news-10151026