"What If Napoleon Had Come To America?" Topic

"Two hundred years ago this year, in June of 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at Waterloo by a coalition of countries — including Austria, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom. Though he wound up in exile on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, he contemplated escaping to America.

What if Napoleon had come to the New World?

"The answer to your question varies depending on what year Napoleon might have arrived," says Shannon Selin, a writer of historical fiction in Vancouver, British Columbia, and author of the novel Napoleon in America. "He seriously considered escaping to the United States from France in July 1815, and there were several reported plots to rescue him from St. Helena between 1816 and 1821."…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

He would have worn sparkly flared white jump suits and eaten himself to death with hamburgers.

…. or am I thinking of someone else?

When I lived in New Orleans, I often heard the tale of how Jean Lafitte and his buccaneers were planning the rescue of Napolean. His prepared residence, now called "Napolean House" in the Quarter has a nice restaurant and bar. The muffulettas are amazing.

I'm just not sure he would have fitted in:

YouTube link

YouTube link

YouTube link

His brother made it, at least.

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Some of the art he plundered from Spain can be seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I stumbled across his 9th street house while looking for a doctor's office a decade ago. The building was for sale at the time…

What if he had gone to South America? With all the revolutions and wars of independence that occurred there during and after the Napoleonic Wars, he might have been able to carve himself out another empire.

Which the British would then squelch, of course.

His existence in the USA would've caused many different emotions amongst the two major political factions and their followers. Probably lionized amongst SOME of the established
propertied families. Overall would "probably" not have been a happy camper isolated from the power and prestige of his earlier "adventurous" life. Doubt he would have stayed/been "confined" in the backwaters of the USA for long.

If he had been exiled a decade earlier, perhaps Burr and Wilkinson could've used him in the gambit for Tejas/Mexico.

Pennsylvania has a touristy little town about an hour from me called French Azylum. It was supposed to be a home away from home for poor misunderstood French aristocrats.
Perhaps Nappy could have set up shop there too.

It has never been on my agenda to visit. One badly built 18th C luxurious log cabin looks like another and we have a few around here from the AWI Wyoming Massacre.
I do have a soft spot for it though. I got laid in a parking lot there passing through.

It would probably mean he won Waterloo, and over there you would all be speaking French now…

He would have worn sparkly flared white jump suits and eaten himself to death with hamburgers.

…. or am I thinking of someone else?

Boney has left the building.

I think Winston needs to tell us more about the wonders of French Azylum.

Nothing much would have come of it. The population of the United States was too tiny for his need to get men killed, he would have run out of them in a fortnight. As was said of him "He needed an income of 10,000 lives a month.

Might be an interesting scenario to consider him in Louisiana where the Napoleonic Code was being blended with some Spanish concepts under the influence of a very pro-french population…

Think of the Old Guard in the Bayous

Think of the Old Guard in the Bayous

There was an old movie (maybe The Kentuckian) that includes just that. It's set in Lousiana, and when the hero needs some help it shows up in the form of a local militia unit made up of Grand Armee veterans. There were such colonies of French vets in LA after Napoleon fell.

I also recall hearing that there was a unit of French veterans as part of Jackson's army at New Orleans, but I can't vouch for the veracity of that claim.

An interesting movie –

General Humbert was a french general during Napoleons early period. He also had a period of command under Jackson during he defense of New Orleans.

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Not sure if there was a unit or not – but solldiers who had resettled from Canada after the French and Indian War and some French Veterans from Europe were certainly in the area.

Don't forget the rumors (rumours) of Michael Ney escaping to the US. One can always hope…..and from what I've heard the details of his demise in the Luxembourg garden in Paris are a little"fishy". I am however no expert on the subject.

I hope someone can shed more light on this. 1850 to 1889 are my fields of interests, but I love the. Emperor.

He would had taken a short rest on his land then ….

- been joined by 30.000 hardened veterans,…
- rose the largest militia ever seen on the continent …
- became president of the US,
- invaded Canada to get a good revenge over the Brits, then Mexico to save this work to his nephew, then probably the rest of latin America, where he would had been acclaimed as El Libertador 5too bad for Bolivar).

The "Empire des Etats-Unis d'Amérique" would ahd became the first power in the world one century before the USA made it ….

As a Corsican, he would had protected the 2nd amendment …
but you should probably speak French at the moment.

Just like in: "Vive l'Empereur".

Fortunatly, all those horrors did not take place …
Cheers to all!

Awesome campaign idea!

Who has the figures? I need to buy more figures!!!

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Well, that was weird.

The Movie is 'The Fighting Kentuckian' starring John Wayne and Oliver Hardy, no less! Burt Lancaster starred in 'The Kentuckian' which was a Tale about how the Bad guys foolishly abduct his son, if I remember correctly

In 'The Fighting Kentuckian', Evil American Landowners plot to swindle hapless French immigrants out of their land, soon after 1815. But off course, these are no ordinary French immigrants…

And they have John Wayne on their side…

And John Wayne plays fiddle. Or rather, not.