"Why was Napoleon so Successful? " Topic

I don't have any Napoleonic axes to grind. Except for the fact that those damn Brits burned Washington, and refuse to come back to do it again, no matter how bad it's needed!

Name your price, I'm free this weekend.

Generally, the British just have an intractable hatred for Napoleon which they will admit but not admit that it's really not justified outside of the subjective.

Probably, most of these people dont know much about Napoleon, only that it's culturally acceptable to pile invective on him without limitation as a per se enemy of their culture.

It's positively Pavlovian.

This is true, but it's also hard for Americans to understand our dislike of the French in general and boney in particular, you have only known them as allies not enemies for hundreds of years.

It's true. In Britain, you'll find hatred for Napoleon on almost every street corner. Fortunately our dry native sense of humour and irrational, archaic spelling prevents us from becoming bitter and twisted. That may also be because we won the battle of Waterloo, singlehandedly, etc.

…you have only known them as allies not enemies for hundreds of years.

That is incorrect. Americans endured years of French and Indian raids out of Canada until the end of the French and Indian War.

And the US fought the Revolutionary French in the Caribbean in the Quasi-War from 1798-1800 until Napoleon ended it after he became French head of state.

The French entered the War of the Revolution on the side of the Americans which was crucial for American independence in 1783.

The ham-handedness of the British government in its treatment of the American colonies brought on that war, just as British high-handedness brought on the unnecessary War of 1812.

Name your price, I'm free this weekend.

Really?

In Britain, you'll find hatred for Napoleon on almost every street corner.

I didn't find it so when I was in London last year.

Really?

Of course not, I actually have a very busy weekend planned annoying humorless francophiles.

foxweasel and 42flanker

I'm not sure what sort of people you have met who stand on street corners and I find it hard to believe that those sort of people would be happy to converse with you on anything Napoleonic! LOL

But really, to be serious, people should stop knocking or provoking fellow Napoleonic enthusiasts. We are fewer than you think, especially in the UK.

And my experience, as a Brit, is that most people in Britain don't care about the Napoleonic period, that Waterloo is just a railway station or a well known song by Abba and Wellington is one of a pair of boots to keep your feet dry. Many have probably only heard of the period through TV series likes Sharpe or the recent vanity Fair.

If you think hatred for Napoleon is strong in the UK, I suggest you need to expand your contact with people other than those you er, converse with on street corners.

Gazzola, please read my post above yours, I stopped trying to be serious about this topic a while ago (I suspect a couple of others have as well)

Napoleon had observed the Allies dividing up their forces and vowed to concentrate his forces for the decisive blow. When Napoleon had to trust in subordinates as in 1812, 13 and 14 its when his army failed. The same goes for the Peninsula campaigns. Not saying that he didn't have his faults but the French subordinates, except for Davout and Eugene, were never really taught his system of warfare or realized how to emulate it.

Mack's columns at Ulm. The Allied columns at Austerlitz.

Note how that Napoleon violates one of his maxims of war when he detached Ney to watch L'Estocq on 8 February rather than having him march on Eylau leaving a brigade of cavalry to watch the Prussians rather than try to bring them to battle. All throughout 1806-07 Napoleon divided his forces and the result was a very poor campaign. He uses brute force at Friedland basically to beat Bennigsen.

Ney was pursuing Lestocq towards Eylau and engaging in a series or running fights with him en route. He wasn't just 'watching' him.

Bennigsen got himself trapped at Friedland with a river to his back trying to destroy Lannes corps. When Napoleon with the main army showed up the Russians tried to fight and were nearly destroyed.

Davout, Suchet, Soult, Massena, St Cyr and other French commanders had skills of their own, Davout being noted as studying his profession, as did Lannes (who was probably the best advance guard commander in any army-witness Friedland and Saalfeld). Napoleon did teach his imperial aides-de-camp his system of warfare (Rapp, Savary, et al). Eugene was given, by correspondence, a virtual manual prior to and during the 1809 campaign by Napoleon. Eugene is undoubtedly the most underrated commander of the period in any army.

Foreplay

Never mind the question.

The answer is always foreplay. A nice hotel, just enough cocktails and a foreign situation does not hurt.

That is why he was so successful….although the story goes he was more inclined to "a lightning campaign"..in every sense

Yes- I certainly took the Britsh street corner Francophobia comments as just meant for a chuckle- in response to the rather fevered post which tried to sum up the whole of the British national psyche in respect of the French in two or three spittle flecked lines.
But on the subject of street corner patriotism- not too far from me there is a Blucher Street- a relic from the post Waterloo days when the old Prussian was a national hero in the UK.
Post 1815- very many British towns and villages had Blucher streets or Blucher Lanes- a country-wide bricks and mortar recognition and memorial of the part played by the Prussians at Waterloo. Many were renamed during WWI but a few still remain dotted around the country.

A shame the old Marshal should have been demoted because of the antics of an later, unhinged scion of the house of Hohenzollern.

…in response to the rather fevered post which tried to sum up the whole of the British national psyche in respect of the French in two or three spittle flecked lines.

Perhaps you could point those 'spittle flecked lines' as I cannot find them…?

Kevin- it wasn't one of your posts. 42Flanker- quite so- a real shame viewed from this distance of history.

Which post was it then?