Historian Breaks Down The Napoleonic Wars - Oversimplified (Part 1)

all right guys it's time i'm home uh thank you to the hundreds of you who have been posting comments on my videos the last several days letting me know that oversimplified came out with a napoleonic wars in a two-part series i have been in georgia and tennessee for the last five days so i was unable to do it but i got home late last night about 11 30 last night so i am ready to go let's dive into part one no introduction needed you guys know what this is about this is oversimplified uh and we're going to try to fill in some of the gaps kind of make it less oversimplified i guess and just kind of react to what he's talking about as always make sure you check out the original content creator even though all of the revenue from this video automatically goes to them anyway so i guess you don't really need to watch theirs because watching this video still makes them money so regardless let's dive into it this video was made possible by nordvpn stay safe online by clicking the link below and get a huge discount off a two-year plan with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee also why not grab yourself a character pin of the little corporal himself before they sell out and big shout out to the patrons head on over to learn about benefits such as discord access and maybe even a little behind the scenes content okay mrs bonaparte this is it one last push and we're done so this is the same intro he used for abraham lincoln if i remember right so it looks like the same scene you know giving birth the whole thing so interesting he decided to reuse that for this one congratulations it's a general oh and here comes the rest of the army now did you just say the rest of the army okay that's different [Music] interesting history is full of great conquerors many with very impressive origin stories for example alexander the great was the son of a king julius caesar came from an aristocratic family that descended from a goddess great conquerors don't usually come from relatively insignificant families living on impoverished islands so true to a point but then you could also point to people like hitler who didn't come from anything great and he i mean he's a great conqueror i mean i guess but um i think it's actually a more fascinating story when you come from little than when you come from a life of privilege like julius caesar did for example or alexander the great um you know the fact that that napoleon comes from this minor italian noble family is kind of kind of a cool factor to this because it's his skill and his ability to get him where he uh goes not because of where and when he was born but as it just so happens that is where our story begins in the early 18th century the island of corsica was a part of the republic of genoa until one day corsica said hey we're declaring independence and it's probably not worth your time to try and stop us so genoa said you're right it isn't worth our time hey friends you want to buy this island and france said sure thing and thus corsica became france just in time for napoleon to be born french many corsicans didn't appreciate their new conquerors however and from an early age napoleon developed some fairly anti-french sentiments napoleon's dad however quickly embraced his new french overlords which created some tension between dad and son that's not entirely accurate his dad actually uh his whole family was kind of pro corsican independence it was only after some time had passed that his dad kind of embraced becoming a part of france and actually ends up corsica's representative to the court of king louis xvi so in the end that's kind of what happened and there there were some hard feelings between napoleon and his dad over that but uh it didn't just kind of happen quite like that oh look at me i'm dad i wear powdered wigs and silver buckle shoes and i'm a traitor to the corsican people go to your room napoleon no you go to your room dad okay on the other hand napoleon adored his mother who was definitely the disciplinarian of the family and even though she would punish napoleon severely he kind of respected that but napoleon's parents wanted the best for their family and since they were a very minor nobility they were able to have napoleon sent off to the shining lights and rat infested sewage puddles of the big city so um minor nobility yes his mother i believe was genoese nobility in her line his father's side i think was from tuscany originally and they did have a long line going back and they own some ancestral estates and things like that napoleon's the i think third child in his family he has an older brother and an older sister uh and he didn't go straight to military school uh you gotta remember this is a kid that grows up speaking uh corsican and italian those were his uh italian was like the official language in corsica but of course the native language of corsican so he spoke those two things growing up he didn't he doesn't start learning to speak french until he's about 10 years old and so he actually goes to i forget the name of the place but he goes to a like a boarding school in france first that's where he starts learning french things like that and then later he goes to military school napoleon went to military school in france okay napoleon why don't you introduce yourself to your new classmates well i'm napoleon and i hate all of you your farts smell like cheese you can't pronounce the letter r all you do is go on strike and you call eggs biffs like a bunch of big dumb idiot dingleberries okay thanks napoleon i hope you like being bullied and bullied he was they picked on him for his corsican accent his family's lack of wealth and it probably didn't help that he also had a bit of a chip on his shoulder but he could hold his own and on an average day might be found dishing out ratatouille sandwiches for breakfast so the bullying happens at the the boarding school that he goes to first not at military school military school comes later um i think he's i want to say he's like 15 or 16 when he goes to boarding or goes to military school i believe about this time his father dies there's not a lot of money so he's only got enough money to go to the military school for one year which it's normally a two-year program so he has to complete it in one year and that's what he does and so that's where you first start seeing signs of his military genius when he's able to do that he spent much of his time alone and he loved reading about the great conquerors of history he learned about julius caesar and he wondered if one day he too might have a pizza franchise named after him no he actually wanted to be an author and he wrote a couple of books uh one of them was like a romance novel uh yeah early on i mean he wasn't thinking military career he was thinking about being a writer excelled at math and geography and when he graduated at the age of 16 he was made second lieutenant in an artillery regiment now second lieutenant might sound pretty sweet to a screw-up like you but napoleon had a little something called ambition stonks of it and he wasn't content being just some junior officer he wanted to rise the ranks unfortunately for him that would be a little difficult well napoleon i've reviewed your application it's clear you're very skilled and would be a perfect fit for the promotion and simeon you're just about the biggest idiot i've ever seen your test results suggest you have the mental aptitude of a senile earthworm and in the part of the form where you list your experience you seem to have drawn a picture of a gerbil giving birth to a shoe but your dad is the marquis de la fu fayette so you get the job yeah napoleon's corsican remember and his whole life he spoke with a corsican accent so he's an outsider uh he ends up getting his promotions within i think like a corsican military unit so he goes back to corsica and that's where he spends a lot of his early years in the military french society was just too closed off positions were handed out based on nobility not talent and the young napoleon probably felt stuck wouldn't it be nice if say a revolution came along and changed all of that well what are the chances the french revolution is here bastille toppling head chopping king popping the revolution promised to do away with the old social hierarchy and make everyone a little more equal napoleon may not have cared much for the violent mobs but if it meant he could rise the ranks he was in he began fighting to defend the revolution he put down a british-sponsored counter-revolution in toulon and got promoted he put down a royalist uprising in paris and got promoted and as his military prowess became more recognized he was even given his very own army yeah so this is pretty crazy because early on he's having a hard time advancing through the ranks the revolution happens next thing you know he's 24 years old and he's a brigadier general already and while a lot of other generals were failing he was having success uh he was having success in doing things that other people couldn't do and 10 years earlier that might not have been enough for him it's kind of like with the american revolution guys like alexander hamilton who are young guys who might not otherwise have ever had a chance to make a name for themselves are able to because of the circumstances of the world around them it's an incredible time it was astonishing progress for such a young man of humble origins and napoleon's wildest dreams were coming true but napoleon also believed he could increase his social status if he married an older rich lady and so around this time napoleon went on the prowl however if some sources are to be believed he was a verified creep he reportedly had terrible luck with woman and most wanted nothing to do with him fortunately he eventually met josephine an aging single mother who was deeply in debt and needed stability so she agreed to marry him despite finding him intensely disgusting napoleon you dirty dog you've done it unbeknownst to napoleon however josephine had a bit of a promiscuous reputation hey napoleon i hear you're marrying josephine boy she sure is a great kisser that's right hey wait what do you mean she's a great kisser hey hugo you hear napoleon's marrying josephine wow she sure is a great kisser now hang on just a minute hey everyone napoleon's marrying josephine oh yeah yeah sure is a great kid i'm pretty sure history is good is there anyone here who hasn't kissed my wife yeah you as napoleon fell madly in love with his new wife she fell madly in love with a man named hippolyte it wouldn't be long however before napoleon would leave home and go to war because while france was having its revolution tensions in europe were rising hey austria you'll never guess what we just did what's that friends i got two words for you revo lucian we totally just socked it to our monarchy what austrian dude the rest of us are monarchies yeah not only that but the queen of france is austrian so that was a big no-no to them but yeah i mean this you've seen what happened with the english losing or with the brits losing the american colonies now france has overthrown their monarchy if you're a monarchy in europe you're feeling threatened right now you've just totally threatened the balance of power in europe now we have to worry about our stinky peasants rising up against us i mean holy hell your queen is okay friends this is pretty awkward and the rest of europe is probably itching to give you a wedgie but you're not ready for a war yet so you gotta be cool man it's absolutely crucial that you say something to defuse the situation right now no preposterous war i declare war suck sacrifice ended up at war with basically the rest of europe and the war of the first coalition began now can we talk about the fact that you know france gets a bad rap in modern history because for example of how quickly they lost to the germans in world war ii and so it's kind of the running joke that france as soon as they fight they surrender but you know starting with the wars of the first coalition going all the way up through the war the sixth coalition the napoleonic wars and everything france basically takes on all of europe and wins repeatedly against this huge coalition it's really really impressive and it shouldn't be forgotten at first france struggled but then they started to do surprisingly well and in many conquered territories they began to establish sister republics exporting their revolutionary ideas across europe in 1796 they planned a three-pronged attack to take vienna and knock austria out of the war with two magnificent armies in the north to kick ass and napoleon in the south has a bit of a diversion so you can see where this is going napoleon's got like the backwater assignment the other two guys aren't going to do so well and he's going to march all the way to austria for the first time napoleon would lead a military campaign this was his chance to prove himself to be somebody and what a general he proved to be the army he was given were demoralized lacking equipment and underpaid but napoleon galvanized them with inspirational speeches and he took them into italy he was outnumbered and his campaign was partially meant to be a sideshow but he made it the main show while the two northern armies were being held back napoleon made staggering progress in a signature napoleon move he masterfully split his enemies into two and took them on separately knocking sardinia out of the war and putting the austrians on the run at the famous battle of lodi he was in the fray aiming the cannons himself getting covered in mud and earning the total respect of his men they respected him so much that when he ordered an almost suicidal assault on the only bridge in town his men threw themselves at it and took it despite fierce austrian resistance so it's not just his ability it's also uh his presence that he's able to command the respect of the men and when you can get men to fight for you and do things like that for you there's no limit to what you're able to accomplish for napoleon it was all he needed to confirm that he was the greatest human who had ever existed wow napoleon you're pretty great at this military stuff just be careful your head doesn't get too big what did you just say to me a little quick and as napoleon swept through northern italy the italians sheared his arrival yes huh remember napoleon's italian by dissent in fact his name was not originally napoleon bonaparte he actually changed it i think it was in his 20s before it actually was bonaparte it was like buon aparte uh it had like a b-u-o-n uh and it was like napoleon uh d-d-i de bonaparte uh so he changes it to sound more french but you know the italians aren't forgetting that he's really italian i'm here to liberate you from your cruel austrian oppressors and replace them with french ones napoleon plundered as he went sending riches back to france to help its economy but also paying his men the first real money they'd seen in years the pope had been supporting the austrians so napoleon briefly went to go give him a slap and as he began to approach vienna the exhausted austrians were forced to make peace with napoleon overseeing negotiations himself he had just single-handedly knocked austria out of the war and by the way he was only 28 so maybe it's about time you moved out of your dad's attic in the italian territories he had conquered napoleon established new french sister republics even writing constitutions and organizing governments himself not something a general generally does when he got back to france he was hailed as a hero so you can already start to see the um the hints of him getting involved in more than just being a general he's still a young guy imagine how if you're like part of the establishment in france and you're seeing this young outsider from corsica winning battle after battle and now he's taking on uh negotiations i mean he's really kind of rising way above his station in all of this and that could not have sat well with a lot of the um a lot of the french leadership and the extremely unpopular government were concerned he might get some power-hungry ideas so they agreed he should go far away from france to egypt where he could maybe undermine british access to india napoleon was eager to win more glory so he brought with him a team of scholars and he was like whoa it's a freaky man cat whoa it's a big stick well it's an ugly horse whoa it's a stumpy little manlet hey i'm actually average height for the time and that's true uh you know a lot of people they call him the little corporal they um you know have all these nicknames for him and that was really kind of british and other propaganda he was probably five six five seven five eight somewhere in there um he was average height but then british admiral nelson came down and wrecked his fleet and an anglo ottoman force defeated him at acre so napoleon abandoned his men and went back to france yep but they did find the rosetta stone so that's kind of awesome and changed the world really i mean change what we know about history but yeah he uh basically doesn't go so well in egypt and he takes off but this is when his fortunes are gonna change because he's gonna go from being just a general to being a political leader his campaign in egypt hadn't gone quite as planned but one thing you should know about napoleon was that he was a skilled propagandist he published his own newspapers that sometimes exaggerated his achievements and even commissioned paintings that generally made him look cool so when he returned to paris he was yet again hailed as a hero and he began to get some power hungry ideas first however he had a bit of a problem to deal with see he had learned something shocking about his dear wife really josephine this guy i'm just as tall as him i'm sorry i swear now that you're becoming famous i'll never do it again make sure you don't i've never stooped so louis to cheat on you now if you'll excuse me i'll be in this room consulting my generals for the next 30 minutes and by consulting i mean boinking by my generals i mean this woman and by 30 minutes i mean two seconds having dealt with his wife napoleon was then approached by a very influential politician who said he had an idea he wanted to stage a coup against the deeply unpopular government and needed the extremely popular napoleon's help and napoleon thought that was just the darn tootiness idea i don't think it's gonna go the way that this guy thinks it should though the plan was to trap the government and convince them to voluntarily give up their power and here's how they did it hey guys oh my gosh quick there's a dangerous jacobin plot to overthrow you which we definitely aren't just making up better get inside this cage so we can protect you okay gentlemen we got him in this case the cage was an isolated palace outside of paris with no one around but napoleon and his army with the government inside napoleon then entered and a pretty chaotic event ensued during which the government didn't seem entirely sure what was going on napoleon's men didn't seem entirely sure what was going on and napoleon himself didn't seem entirely sure what was going on but thankfully napoleon's brother lucian president of the lower house managed to regain control and the remaining councilmen were intimidated into creating a new constitution so this is an important thing to point out too that his brother lucian is president of the lower house so it's not just napoleon in his family who's ambitious who's skilled who has knowledge who is able to rise above a station here's another corsican coming along and getting a powerful position in french government so the whole family uh really kind of rose through the ranks like this and it wasn't just because of napoleon his brother did this kind of independent and i should mention too that uh lucian didn't just get there on his own um he he allied himself with the right people he's like in his early twenties himself he's younger than napoleon um i think he's six years younger than napoleon he allied himself with the jacobins who were rising to power they're pretty radical he actually was an ally of robespierre and when robespierre was um was overthrown and eventually executed lucian actually spent some time in jail during all that time but i think having a popular brother like napoleon did probably help him in some ways and thus a new government was formed this time with three consuls in charge but after napoleon did some rewriting in the end there was really only one man in charge the first conference council him and over the next few years he worked to consolidate even more power and essentially became a dictator in total control of france by the way he was only 30. so maybe it's about time you washed your disgusting bedsheets france was now ruled by possibly the greatest military leader of the time possibly the greatest or definitely well now is his chance to prove it see back when napoleon was still in egypt being indiana jones back home france was in france being france they had conquered even more territory and they were like hey piedmont you get revolutionary ideals hey switzerland you get revolutionary ideals and rome you get revolutionary ideals everybody gets revolutionary oh hey guys nice sledgehammers and maples very cool nail gun you guys here to get some revolutionary ideas [Music] as france was still spreading the revolution and with napoleon busy in egypt the european powers felt the time was right for round two and the war of the second coalition began and this time their big bad boy buddy russia was here to bang some french boys back to bordeaux and bang him they did france got blasted but then russia pulled out after stolen in switzerland and now that napoleon was in charge of the country he was ready to start blasting right back he took command of the army of the reserve and he brought the fight to the austrians now there are many traits that made napoleon a great military leader i already mentioned one of them how he was one of the boys and commanded the total loyalty of his men but now we see a second reason the element of surprise in 1800 napoleon moved to geneva and it looked like he was probably going to take on the austrian forces in germany there's no way he'd be crazy enough to move his entire army south to the alps as a surprise attack on the austrians besieging genoa oh napoleon's moving his entire army south through the alps as a surprise attack on the austrians besieging genoa napoleon's crossing of the alps is legendary and you may have seen one of the most famous paintings of the general popping a sick wheelie on his majestic stallion surrounded by dangerous mountain terrain of course in real life he made the crossing on a depressed mule but that's not as cool when he emerged in italy the austrians expected him to come break their siege but napoleon went for their supply line near milan forcing the austrians to meet napoleon head-on at the famous battle of morengo the austrians initially clobbered the outnumbered french and they were like hooray we won but then a few hours later napoleon showed up again with an even bigger army and he clobbered them right back holy cow this tiny little fun-sized french guy is running rings around us all right i'm average height for the time you jerk and another thing napoleon did and we've talked about this on our napoleonic war series uh it's how he organized his army that made it more mobile it made it more um able to fight as independent units and not as one big massive force uh it made it easier to supply he did a lot of things that allowed his army to do things that these other armies couldn't do ben after general miros victory at hogan linden vienna was exposed and the austrians again sued for peace just like the war of the first coalition the second coalition ended in another french victory but in many ways they both felt more like napoleon victories only the uk remained at war with napoleon and they were using their powerful navy to blockade french ports and were even seizing the cargos of neutral ships obviously everyone else got pretty pissed off that the british were interfering with their trade so in response they formed a league and they embargoed the uk right back neutral countries protecting their own interests that's offensive so britain went to copenhagen and blew a bunch of stuff up and the league disbanded but because the uk's economy was pretty bust they decided to sign a treaty with france in 1802 for the first time in a long time europe was at peace that'll last for about a year congratulations sire you've achieved peace yes pierre but not for long i still don't trust those dirty brits did you hear they've been calling me the bony man what does that even mean keep an eye on them would you i can't sire why not because they use nordvpn so thank you now where were we oh yeah crossing the alps defeating the austrians and europe at peace what a meteoric rise it had been for the young course again he had just taken charge of a nation that appeared to be losing a war and turned it all around securing french gains in europe but there was now a big question you see throughout the chaotic french revolution french governments had struggled to keep the economy afloat they often didn't have a whole lot of support and they frequently came and went would napoleon finally be the man who could stick around military victories were one thing but could the general also govern spoiler alert yes the economy is crumbling well then why don't you have yourself a new national bank currency reform and improve taxation and welfare systems the legal system is an incoherent mess well then why don't we nicely wrap all those civil laws up into one new centralized legal code corrupt government officials throw them in the trash bad infrastructure throw it in the trash woman's rights throw him in the trash wait really well yeah unfortunately while napoleon was building on the equality of the revolution he also largely scaled back rights for certain groups and husbands had full legal control over their wives but come on ladies maybe let men have a slice of the pie for once okay napoleon further reformed education insuring a system based on individual ability meaning now simeon had to compete with everyone else which makes total sense when you figure that napoleon is a guy who had to fight to get ahead based on his individual ability because he didn't have the background so it makes total sense that he would want to create a system that allows for people like him to have a better chance and napoleon could get the cream of the crop to help him run the republic but he wasn't just building on the ideas of the revolution the revolution had led to a lot of chaos and napoleon needed stability so he rolled back a couple things most notably with religion the revolution had pretty much kicked the catholic church to the curb but napoleon understood that since many french citizens still considered themselves catholic that could be a problem so he came to an agreement with the pope and brought back the church only this time with some pretty hefty power limitations he also ensured freedom for other religions and is often noted for his positive treatment of jewish people at a time of widespread anti-semitism and these are all things that nobody really talks about because you know i get it you know just in history in general we tend to focus on the wars because those are the the more interesting things to a lot of people but um everybody focuses on napoleon's ability as a general and not on uh he's coming in in a time when france has been as they said in chaos the the terror after the revolution uh and this ongoing revolution that's happening has just brought incredible upheaval to the country and to be able to bring stability to that in any form is a incredible feat but then to not only bring stability but also make the country better that's stuff that that shouldn't be forgotten but while all of this may make napoleon sound like a pretty stand-up dude it's good to note that he believed in religious freedom because he thought it was a powerful tool to keep the poor from eating the rich or something like that overall napoleon's aim was to end the chaos of the revolution and finally create a stable and prospering french republic and in that aim he seemed to be largely successful and generally popular with the people of france he officially declared that the revolution is over adding i am the revolution napoleon's head could be seen for miles of course not everyone was happy with napoleon's reforms conservatives felt he was too radical radicals felt he was too conservative but since napoleon was a dictator opposition could usually be stamped out with some good old-fashioned iron fisting in 1804 napoleon took one last major step after some failed attempts were made to assassinate him he wanted to strengthen his position and ensure his dynasty could live on after him and so he decided being first consul for life simply wasn't quite enough he decided he should become an emperor he held a vote asking the french people if they were cool with the idea and they returned it definitely not rigged 99.9 in favor definitely not rigged there's elections like this today that are similar in other countries the bulls on this man and so in the 2nd of december 1804 in an elaborate ceremony at notre dame napoleon was made emperor the pope was even invited to attend and normally he would crown an emperor but to make sure everyone knew this wasn't some charlamagne style circular power division napoleon lifted the crown and placed it on his own head like i said the balls on this man he was now emperor of the french well napoleon you were a general then he became first consul for life and now you're an emperor is it enough yet is your ambition finally satisfied i don't know pierre what comes after emperor i would say god sire you want to be a god yes under maybe that's the problem with uh unbridled ambition is that eventually there's nowhere else to go and uh the people who are most successful are the ones who know when to quit when they're ahead the ones who know when to stop when to not push a little too far i'll put it down under maybe okay everyone what the hell is going on this core skin guy showed up out of nowhere and he's kicking our ass he's exporting the ideas of the french revolution wherever he goes and he just declared himself king of italy and emperor he can't do that i'm the emperor oh hey fellow monarchs i see you're having a monarch party my invite must have got lost in the mail i'll just set up a spot right here wow you don't belong here napoleon we're coming to take you down i'd like to see you try whoa i'm so scared i just pooed my pants hey everyone i just pooed my pants [Laughter] no but i did just poo my pants before napoleon had even declared himself emperor the british had already redeclared war on france because both sides had been violating their previous treaty napoleon immediately occupied hanover and then began making plans for a great british invasion so remember that hanover and the uh united kingdom um well i guess still great britain at this point um are one uh they're under one crown uh the um prince elector of hanover eventually the king of hanover um is the same as king george iii is also the head of state of hanover partially paid for by selling a huge chunk of land to the united states napoleon gathered his army along the english channel but here was the problem while napoleon's powerful army would almost certainly obliterate the british on land there was very little chance he'd actually make it across the channel because britannia ruled the waves this power dynamic would keep the two traditional enemies from engaging in much real direct combat throughout the napoleonic wars however the british had something else up their sleeve copious amounts of money they were willing to throw cash at anyone who would go to war against napoleon and there were plenty of takers austria russia naples and sweden hoping to put napoleon's france back in its place formed the third coalition against france the coalition forces probably thought that this time they stood a chance they weren't prepared for the total humiliation they were about to suffer the war of the third coalition was napoleon at his best we've already learned two ways in which napoleon was a great military commander but here comes one of the biggest reasons speed he had reorganized his army into courts which were themselves basically small armies yeah and that we've talked about that when we talked about the war of the third coalition uh each one of these core you know a traditional army has its infantry its cavalry its artillery its supply system it's all together uh by dividing his army into core each one of them had those things independently they are many armies and they can spread out but they also are close enough together that if one of them gets into combat the others can quickly reinforce this is the system that will define wars like the uh american civil war when they use the core system and you see that coming into play at a place like gettysburg where all of the core uh you know run head to head and then the other ones are all rushing to join you had seven core on the union side three on the confederate side uh so they these are guys that going to west point they were learning about napoleon it was his tactics it was his way of running an army that they basically grew up modeling each had their own infantry cavalry and artillery and as a result was able to act more independently they spread out through the countryside and by living off the land rather than relying on heavy supply trains they were able to move extremely quickly napoleon would traverse massive distances outmaneuver his enemies isolate them and then move in for the kill before they even knew what was going on lightning warfare leading to total destruction would you like to see him do it here we go part of the coalition's plan was for the russians to meet up with the austrians and take on napoleon together combined they could turn the tide against him so napoleon needed to stop them from ever meeting but he's all the way over in bologna no problem in a matter of weeks napoleon marched 200 000 men in secret encircling austrian general mack and capturing his entire army a devastating blow napoleon later remarked i have destroyed the austrian army by simply marching and that's i mean that's about it speed and surprise uh when you've got a vastly superior enemy you have to be able to defeat him one part at a time and what ends up being napoleon's downfall in the end is when finally these armies can get together on one battlefield and fight him next he turned to face the approaching russians okay it looks like the french are coming for us but check this out i've got an amazing idea when they approach we run away sir you're a genius the russians began to retreat with napoleon giving chase and since his tactics relied on quick victories this could be a problem especially because the longer the war went on the more likely it looked other countries may join the coalition against him but napoleon knew the russians are alexander the first was young and seeking glory so he came up with an idea to lure him in he sent him a message what does it say um it says hello i'm just a little baby boy and i'm very scared are you talking like that or is he he is sir why is he doing that i don't know but it's very cute helpless and vulnerable hmm a little baby boy eh very scared eh cute hey boris get my crossbow we're going hunting the allied forces turned to face napoleon who they now believed was in a vulnerable position he was set up at austerlitz and to make it look like he was retreating he had even evacuated the high ground a thick fog set in obscuring napoleon's center as the allies took the bait and set up on the heights the i don't know if this is absolutely napoleon's greatest victory but it certainly has to be up there uh what he was able to pull off here against these forces was just incredible we've talked about it in other videos from there they spotted napoleon's very weak looking right flank and they descended the heights to go get it and you know i mentioned this in the video about australits if napoleon's right flank looks very weak there's a reason napoleon's right flank looks very weak he doesn't do anything by accident and he was fully aware of what he was doing here little did they know it was exactly what napoleon was hoping they'd do the next thing they knew a large french force was emerging from the fog launching a huge central assault up the hill they swung around crushing the allies and as men attempted to flee across the frozen lakes napoleon ordered his artillery to fire on the ice causing an unknown number to drown but he told me he was just a little baby boy what happened he tricked you sir you mean i was the little baby boy it was napoleon's masterpiece and austria were once again forced to make peace with france then with the french conquest of naples in 1806 the war of the third coalition ended as yet another napoleon victory this was the third time napoleon had had to give austrian emperor francis a good spanking and so with the peace treaty in 1805 napoleon was determined to punish him he was forced to give up territory hand over significant compensation and promised never to fight napoleon again and this is the war of the third coalition would be the first one that we would consider to be the napoleonic wars uh because the wars before this while napoleon was involved he wasn't in charge uh so now he's the emperor now he's the one running the show now this is all him for now russia sweden and the uk remained at war with france but none were able to offer much of a threat and so napoleon got to work strengthening his grip over europe he gave out rule of captured territories to his family and friends and most notably he established a new confederation in germany with himself as its protector seeing his influence in germany being wiped away emperor francis acknowledged reality and officially dissolved the holy roman empire this is a big big deal i mean the holy roman empire and then the roman empire before that have existed for a long long time we're talking hundreds and hundreds of years of history a thousand years of history just that's it yeah so i mean one of the things that the end result of the napoleonic wars is that the the map of europe is redrawn forever an entity that had existed for over a thousand years but it wasn't all good news for napoleon for one thing spain had earlier allied with france in 1804 because the british just couldn't help themselves from blowing up spanish ships and napoleon hoped the combined french spanish fleet would eventually be able to invade england unfortunately he received word that british admiral nelson had engaged his fleet at trafalgar normally naval battles looked like this but in this case nelson did this was it because he was an idiot no it's because he was a genius he successfully punched through the franco spanish line and unleashed hell his victory ensured british control of the sea and his death during the battle made him a legend yeah and to this day nelson is a legend uh not only in the uk but throughout the world uh so and this is going on at the same time that napoleon is winning these great victories on land and so it's a time of greatness as far as leaders that have gone down in history napoleon's hopes for a future british invasion were gone but not just that napoleon was also hoping to secure peace on the continent but that wasn't looking likely because the prussian king was under pressure from his wife frederick he's established a confederation in our turf and he told us he'd give us hannover but then offered it to the british you have to declare warn him hanover already belongs to the british i mean it's not part of the british empire but it's ruled by the same king that rules britain what is it with you and war what is it with you and being a cupcake go to war okay in october 1806 prussia with its famed military tradition joined the coalition and declared war beginning the war of the fourth coalition unfortunately prussian king frederick william iii wasn't the smartest tool in the shed look at him over there being all french makes me sick boys we'll get him this time but here's the thing this time we have to stick together do not under any circumstances face napoleon by yourself you all saw what happened to austria there you go hey where'd fred go hey you jerk think you're some kind of big shot huh wanna tangle with fred you don't got the cajones we're screwed without consulting its allies prussia had gone ahead and sent napoleon an ultimatum demanding he move all his forces out of germany now some of you watching this video probably can't even wipe your own bum bum yet but even you know you don't just send napoleon an ultimatum obviously napoleon went in for the kill prussia's army was quite outdated so when they met napoleon at the twin battles of yena and oursted it wasn't even close even marshall davu's heavily outnumbered court aurstat sent the prussians running and napoleon carried out a ruthless pursuit of his fleeing enemy taking berlin and within a single month decimating the prussian forces frederick william and the remnants of his army moved to the east at this point napoleon's forces were pretty tired winter had come and conditions were miserable he anticipated both sides would settle into winter quarters but russia decided to try their hand at an unexpected winter attack a series of brutal battles followed that took a heavy toll on both sides including the vicious battle of ayla fought in blizzard conditions men froze to death and many deserted the russian artillery tore the french to shreds and napoleon himself was momentarily under risk of being captured in the end the french army was saved thanks to a legendary cavalry charged by napoleon's flamboyant cavalry commander miura and and it needs to be said that people like davu and murat these guys were very capable as well so napoleon recognized greatness in others and he uh put people who were capable in positions to be effective and so it's not always just the genius of napoleon that wins these battles it's also the genius of the men serving under him after the horror inflicted on both sides they decided it might be a good idea not to do any more fighting until after winter then after winter came and the fighting continued the russians were pushed back to friedland where russian general ben exin made a bit of a blunder by positioning himself with the aloe river to his back the french artillery were able to pin the russians between the river and their concentrated gunfire a major element in napoleon's fighting style and many russians drowned as they tried to escape so it talks about innovative artillery tactics artillery was expensive it was valuable and armies didn't want to lose their artillery and so they usually kept them back which made them less effective napoleon who started out as an artillery commander understood how effective artillery could be and so he would actually use it up closer to the lines to help support infantry attacks and that was really a big factor in some of his victories war of the fourth coalition victory napoleon all right we're gonna wrap it up right there uh if you want to know a little more detail about some of these battles uh austerlitz jaina things like that uh i did the uh extra history series on the napoleonic wars or no i'm sorry it was epic history tv napoleonic wars i'll put links a link in the description to the first episode of that and if you want to watch that series it gives you a lot more detail about some of these events but i will come back tomorrow with part two of the napoleonic wars i hope you guys have enjoyed this reaction don't forget to hit like leave a comment if you would and we will see you then thanks for watching

Channel: Vlogging Through History

Views: 1,462,394

Keywords: blogging through history, european history, historian reacts, history reaction, napoleon bonaparte, napoleonic wars, oversimplified french revolution, oversimplified reaction, oversimplified the napoleonic wars, reaction video, the napoleonic wars, the napoleonic wars oversimplified reaction, the napoleonic wars reaction, vlogging through history, napoleon oversimplified, napoleonic wars oversimplified, napoleonic wars oversimplified reaction

Id: h399G-Wohek

Length: 43min 31sec (2611 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021