Comments by "bart thomassen thomassen" (@thomassenbart) on "Understanding Napoleon | 5 Minute Video" video.

  1. It's great to see Napoleon receive his due. Likely one of the most misunderstood or deliberately maligned persons of history. Napoleon, like Alexander and Caesar before him, was simply incredible and I never cease to wonder at his achievements. His most dubious acts, including the kidnapping and execution of the duc d'Enghien in 1804 had large consequences and his killing of the Turkish prisoners near Jaffa. The numbers executed are disputed and often quoted at 2000, though it may have been more or vastly less. In any case many of these were those Napoleon had released early, with a promise to never fight again against him, so... His most egregious error in my opinion, was installing his brother on the throne of Spain and in so doing, losing a reliable ally and setting in the motion the Spanish ulcer and ultimately the rise of his nemesis, Wellington, who without Spain, would never have scaled Britain's military ladder. Also, with another 250,000 troops he likely, never would have lost his power in Central Europe, even with the Russian debacle. I think Napoleon was less tyrannical, far more intelligent and politically and militarily speaking, vastly superior to any of the Monarchs in Europe at the time. It is objectively, very difficult to condemn Napoleon and laud the rest of the ancient Monarchs in Europe, especially since, as pointed out above, most of the Napoleonic Wars were defensive in nature and not aggressive as is generally portrayed.
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