Napoleon Bonaparte.....

[Mind_your_head]

I heard a story recently that Napoleon ordered his troops to "march this way", which was toward a known cliff. The troops marched towards and 'off the cliff' to their deaths until Napoleon said, 'Stop'. Then he explained to a prominent observer, "that is power".

Do any history buffs/collegians/librarians know ~ can source ~ that this is a true story?

Check out the 'crowning of Napolean':
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:GYxv_obw5mEX4M:http://college.hmco.com/

[PassingFair]

1. I saw the original of that painting in the Louvre....

It is GINOURMOUS!

[Mind_your_head]

3. The story behind it is equally GINOURMOUS!

Gets into detail, no?

[DCKit]

2. Wow. That level of brainwashing before the MSM and TeeVee. Impressive.

You are joking, right?

[Mind_your_head]

4. The brainwashing didn't work.....sorry to disappoint.

:eyes:

[Mind_your_head]

5. So is the story true or not?

Could you please give background/sources.

TIA,
M_Y_H

[PassingFair]

6. I've never heard it before, and I can't find anything about it...

do you have any idea on which campaign this
occurred?

[Mind_your_head]

9. I will check.....but sometimes it is worthy to refer to one's books.

[PassingFair]

7. Sounds more like something one of those Roman Emperors would have done.

They were sociopaths, for the most part.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. Sounds apocryphal. (Napoleon was subject of one of history's great negative PR campaigns)

The guy had almost all the hereditary monarchs of Europe against him, and history is, after all, written by the winners.

It's unfortunate that he's the devil in WAR AND PEACE, a truly wonderful novel. Kind of like Shakespeare's RICHARD III... don't get slammed in great art because it will be around forever.

[trackfan]

10. He comes off not so much a devil, but as a psychologically flawed

loser, in War and Peace. That's the way I see it, at least.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. Fair enough. It's not an unsubtle book.

In general I am always surprised to hear Napoleon described as a tyrant or pathological figure since he was more way progressive than the leaders of other great European powers at the time. Everything is relative. Though an emperor, he was still exporting certain ideals of the French revolution and laying the seeds of the eventual fall of monarchism.

And I have a special fondness for him because he made the USA a super-power as a project. We went to him to buy just the city of New Orleans. He offered the entire territory for only a little more then we had offered for N.O. and our emissaries recognized it was such a deal they had to jump on it.

Afterward, he said to Talleyrand, "With this sale I have insured America's future as a great power that will someday humble England." Gotta love that long-range planning spite.

(He did need money, of course, but we had already offered a lot for N.O., so I believe his packaging the entire territory was indeed to some degree geo-politically motivated.)

[pansypoo53219]

12. he did treat soldiers like fodder tho.

his foray into egypt for 1. waterloo. i read over 100 pages of french history in my 1903 encyclopedia britannica. he had quite a few things in common with georgee. 1 that he lied about big things and LITTLE things. and then there is his cronies.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

13. Yes, he was great at assembling big armies then used the troops recklessly

[mdmc]

15. currently reading that

:kick:

[Greyhound]

14. Are you sure you're not confusing Napoleon with James Earl Jones in "Conan the Barbarian"? n/t