One of the greatest battlefield commanders ever, Napoleon Bonaparte, created an empire that stretched across the whole of Europe. But he was more than just a soldier, his legal reforms and social policies transformed and rationalised his nation and many are still in place today. He was also a historian and even wrote a romantic novella. This documentary tells the story of how a hot-tempered boy from Corsica rise from humble origins to become Emperor of the French, and how he was brought low, to die powerless and alone on a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic.
Find out if Napoleon was just a power-crazed megalomaniac, or whether there a subtler side to the man who history holds responsible for twenty years of war and the loss of six million lives.
Finding Out More:
There are many books about Napoleon life and loves and about his military campaigns. I have added some of most interesting biographies to my Amazon store page if you are interested: https://www.amazon.com/shop/professorgraemeyorston
Academic References;
Just, W., and Morris, M. R. (2003). The Napoleon complex: why smaller males pick fights. Evolutionary Ecology, 17, 509-522.
Kozłowska, M. A., Talbot, D., and Jonason, P. K. (2023). The Napoleon complex, revisited: Those high on the Dark Triad traits are dissatisfied with their height and are short. Personality and Individual Differences, 203, 111990.
Parker, H. T. (1971). The formation of Napoleon’s personality: An exploratory essay. French Historical Studies, 7(1), 6-26.
Parker, H. T. (1990). Why did Napoleon invade Russia? A study in motivation and the interrelations of personality and social structure. The Journal of Military History, 54(2), 131-146.
Tam, A. (2008). In the Mind of a Legend. ESSAI, 6(1), 48.
Copyright Disclaimer:
The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you.
Images:
Wikimedia Commons
National Museum of the Bonaparte Residence in Corsica
Music:
Claude-Paul Taffanel: Wind Quintet in G minor – Andante. The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet. CC2.0
Claude-Paul Taffanel: Andante Pastoral et Scherzettino. Alex Murray (flute) and Martha Goldstein (piano) CC2.0
Kai Engel: Oecumene Sleeps by CC4.0
MusicLFiles – The Lament Of The Warfields CC4.0
Misha Dioxin From the Arctic Circle – To the southern seas CC4.0
Anton Bruckner Symphony 3 Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Paavo Järvi (conductor) CC4.0
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture Skidmore College Orchestra, Public domain
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No 6 Wilhelm Furtwängler – Berlin Philharmonic
Gustav Mahler Symphony No.4 in G major 3. Ruhevoll European Archive. Musopen Public Domain
Video produced by Graeme Yorston and Tom Yorston.
source
I'll give that new movie about him a look.
Why not both ? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
14:01 wow! How considerate of Him?!
15:00 Deafening silence. Shame it is.
21:23 Stress killed Him, He who murdered millions. Reconciled. Amen.
Thank you. Looking forward to the film. He had short man syndrome.
Lady Caroline Lamb's address to Wellington.
'You will always be remembered as the man who defeated Napoleon sir, but Napoleon will always be remembered for being Napoleon '.
Napoleon's ability to attract and inspire large armies with such loyalty to him is hard to fathom. His intense competitiveness and unwavering strategic pursuit of his objectives made the world his stage. I think many billionaires, CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers, and a lot of politicians have such qualities. I now need to read Napoleon's book on Caesar as that would have quite a relevant point of view.
I would be interested in a topic you didn't really delve into: how did he do it? History is crowded with accounts of pretenders to this or that authority, whether in organized crime or in government ( there occasionally is a distinction ), who are intercepted before they get there. Occasionally, you get a Lucky Luciano, or a Napoleon. Just how is it that these men succeed where thousands of others have failed, usually fatally?
He sounds like an extremely self obsessed man, whose vanity knew no bounds & for whom enough was never enough !
Ooo, good choice, saving this for tonight! I’ll be curious to hear if you address the “Napoleon complex” cliche 😸❤️
Trumpoleon
Throughly wonderful video. The images and your comments were very entertaining! Also your closing comments were spot on. Thank you very much
I think he had NPD
the page flip sound effects might be my favorite thing in the world
Hey Prof. Yorston! Thank you for another grand documentary! Happy Thanksgiving and may God bring you many blessings to you and your family!🙏❤️❤️🙏
Very interesting and very apposite given the forthcoming release of the Ridley Scott film , Napoleon . In my opinion he was an egocentric megalomaniac within the geopolitical confines of the era . I feel it was a misjudgement that his remains were released to France to lie in Glory at the Invalides . Strangely the French are particularly indifferent to him as a historical figure and tend to honour his achievements by naming Metro and railway stations after successful campaigns , Wagram , Austerlitz , Magenta etc . There is no Waterloo on the Paris Metro system , quelle surprise !
Napoleons war in current Haiti was more neuanced. He was desperate for cheap cannon fodder and went recruiting polish soilders of all ranks (who lost their country completely to partition) in return of promise helping getting Poland back on the map. When polish divisions arrived in Haiti and saw slavery which reminded them serfdom in their country (which they were trying to eradicate, and were most of the Napoleon's polish shoilders came from) they quickly switched sides and helped Hatian to run him out of the island. Quite big chunks of Poles stayed on the island contributing to the blue eyed or blond black person phenomenon there 😉 Some run to fight America wars and some retuned to fight get Poland back on map, which eventually happened without Napoleon's help.
Great!!
Thanks, I found that quite interesting.
My only question i -, why do you have a sliced bagel on two sticks on the bookshelf behind you?
I look forward to more of your videos.
Horrible Little Malignant Narcissist. The kind of megalomaniac, like Trump, whom we need to prevent coming anywhere near power. Fight, fight. fight – not what mankind needs.
Per capita he was responsible for more death than Hitler.
Would Napoleon be classed as someone with a personality disorder today? He seems indifferent to the loss of his soldiers. My grandfather served in world war 2 and saw many friends killed he always told me crying wasn't weakness it is a safety value those that don't cry go mad. I love the quote attributed to the Duke of Wellington after Waterloo. When he looked at carnage on the battlefield. He said the only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won.
Richard Burton acting Napoleon was inspired casting!
Thank you for an informative documentary, I had never heard of him selling at 3c an acre and think your point of him not being able to look ahead and predict the future consequences of his actions, is very succinct.
The brits did a great job making sure this warlord, with an insatiable appetite for war, spent the rest of his life locked up on that island.