What if Napoleon Never Fell? (ft. Armchair Historian)

Napoleon and Waterloo named a more iconic duo well uh okay we get the gag let's get this over with [Music] one of the great questions of history is when if Napoleon had one at Waterloo it's an interesting concept Napoleon lost so what what if not that happened while it's an interesting question it's one that ignores the broader scope Napoleon's fall was not simply because he lost at Waterloo it was because he lost the core fighting force of his army the control over his defeated enemies and invasion in Russia and maybe just maybe after years of fighting something within himself what I'm saying is Napoleon's downfall was much more than just Waterloo though I still want to talk about that if you don't know really anything about Waterloo itself check out this video done in collaboration with Griffin from the armchair historian that way you aren't confused alright good great even if the polian did win at Waterloo say he was more bold in his actions sent the old garden earlier his flanks defended against the Prussians go through any small tactical change just as Napoleon did in his head for the rest of his life on a Atlantic Rock the state of Europe was simply everyone against France even if Waterloo is one they will need to be another battle to secure that victory and another and another and while a younger Napoleon maybe could have done that times had changed he was older the gas was getting low the Waterloo campaign was an offensive endeavor France invading to fight back the British and Prussians it was a game that Napoleon wanted to play but simply wasn't prepared for and the only way to win this game was not to play Napoleon might might have held on to power longer than a hundred days after his return if he fought instead a defensive war yes it might have been unpopular to allow the enemy onto French lands but this time would be spent recruiting more men to defend France or that's at least how he would phrase it Napoleon would fight on his own land and force the Allies to come to him a war of survival for the French Revolution itself or at least to the French how it would be seen keep in mind during all of this the French people supported Napoleon the only reason he was able to reclaim his throne with simple lift of his hat was because the people were sick of the Bourbon dynasty the Allies were seen as foreign powers wishing to reinstall a monarch which they were and so war inside France ironically might be like a war in Spain when Napoleon himself invaded this is just me theorizing but perhaps the French learned a thing or two from the Spanish guerrillas but also had that military experience to back it up if Napoleon was to survive it wouldn't be just from his own military but the people rallying to support him in defense of their home which might make a long scale war against France for the coalition far more tedious than they wished but for now it's hard to save Napoleon would have won because he didn't do this he instead took the fight to the coalition and lost so even with winning Waterloo or defending France Napoleon still is just barely holding on to power there had to be some different change something so catastrophic to Napoleon that might have been prevented I wonder what that was [Music] Russia was the deathblow to Napoleon not the Russian military just Russia itself the weather the geography the people's ability to not play by European rules of surrender the set fire get it to Napoleon's European plans but why did France choose to invade Russia in the first place by 1812 Napoleon had beaten virtually every nation on mainland Europe into submission or joined it in alliance but his mastery over the continent was not absolute all it would take was one humiliating defeat to shatter the illusion while France was the undisputed major power on the land the French would despite all their efforts never be able to compete with the British at sea the Royal Navy remained defiant curbing France's Navy from attempting an invasion on the British Isles thus Napoleon decided he would wage a war of attrition his plan was to starve the British out by forcing the newly formed coalition of European states France now presided over to cut trading ties with Britain the goal was to put a stranglehold on Britain's economy forcing the country's administration to sue for peace out of economic despair however that plan was foiled as well but not by the Royal Navy this time it was Russia so there you go from Napoleon's perspective if Russia blatantly continued to trade with Britain it made the entire embargo useless in true early 19th century fashion Napoleon knew the only way for Russia to answer for this was well war now this wasn't the only reason nor was I on a whim France and Russia were very much competitors each empire vying for control of their side of the European world if Napoleon simply doesn't go to war with Russia he would be allowing one rival to prop up another bullet saying Napoleon has the hindsight of a 21st century historian and decides that with Russia it's simply not worth it his army stays in France and the status quo remains past 1812 what now it is an alternate 1812 Napoleon does not attack Russia and instead decides he should pay far more attention to deal with the insurgency in Spain that has always been a hellscape for France even without invading Russia however the nations he subdued would be plotting no matter what Napoleon did the Continental System simply couldn't have held up Sweden had illegally sent supplies to Britain which France soon punished Prussia understandably Dennett wants a fight french Wars and while France did secure a temporary alliance with Austria this was an alliance with a strict end date in mind even without a Russian war or a marriage because its Napoleon there was always gonna be another war whether he wanted one or not a result of rebellion from within his own alliance by his fault or not was always going to occur but this time without France having its army decimated by Russia a new war when ever it may happen certainly could have gone much differently for Napoleon even after losing almost 400,000 men on his march back to France he was still able to win five battles and then upon returning rallied 400,000 new soldiers to fight on a new coalition of Sweden Russia Britain and eventually Austria while he did lose it was still a tough fight and not one you'd expect if most of Europe was against you an ultimate war is not a decisive victory for the Allies instead this fight is once again drawn-out perhaps Austria is less optimistic to betray Napoleon enjoying a war they know they might not win since this is speculation it's not a hundred percent France could win this war all that matters is without Russia France has a far better chance at least with this war Napoleon holds on a power well through the 1810s so for the sake of the scenario the war is over by 1815 416 let's assume France wins napoleon secures his continental system and perhaps britain remains out of reach but isn't a threat well what now this is where my video becomes a little bit of a lie sometimes in life you simply can't change nature Napoleon may not have ever fell in this alternate timeline so that doesn't mean he isn't brought down by the biggest battle of all cancer Napoleon died in 1821 from what we now believe to be stomach cancer he didn't simply die from a broken heart or anything it was an actual health problem that would have taken his life no matter what Napoleon had he never fallen would have died leaving his title as Emperor as all monarchs do up to their sons by 1821 assuming Napoleon still dies around the same time his son napoleon ii would be crowned at the emperor of france a boy at the age of 11 left to defend an already fragile system that if it hasn't collapsed by now would be crumbling and it's not a shock france's rivals would call arms again europe divides itself much like the congress of vienna so there in the grand scheme this could have been the situation the problem that sometimes is faced with predicting events that never happened is we don't actually know how Napoleon might have changed with 10 extra years on the throne even in Waterloo it's believed many of his failings may have just simply been because he wasn't the same bold leader he once was with age came more caution and moving forward into the next decade of his life I wonder how much his failing health would have contributed to a weakened reign either way in the grand long-term this Napoleonic France was always on a timer no amount of military strategy or planning wins against the Grim Reaper this is Cody of alternate history of special thanks to Griffin from the armchair historian for contributing to this video I worked with him on his own which if you haven't seen it already I highly recommend oh yeah also sorry for taking a month to upload this

Channel: AlternateHistoryHub

Views: 1,015,720

Keywords: What if Napoleon Never Fell?, What if Napoleon Never Lost At Waterloo?, Napoleon AlternateHistoryHub, AlternateHistoryHub, alternate history, armchair historian, armchair historian napoleon, napoleon history, napoleon waterloo, napoleon, waterloo, what if napoleon won at waterloo, history

Id: PFY7BuSoCwo

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 03 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Le but de Napoléon à Waterloo n'était pas de reprendre l'Europe. Son objectif était de gagner puis de négocier la paix en position de force.

[u/Neker]

Stupid premices. Waterloo was the last nail in the coffin. What really got Napoléon was the Russian campaign.

So, if you want Napoléon not to fail, you have to rewind the film a bit more.

1. Don't count on invading Russia

2. Don't sell Louisiana to finance the deed. Instead, actually colonise and develop it.

Since you don't don't invade Russia, you don't loose your one-million-men army to stupid diseases and winter. Use this Grande Armée to consolidate your 1811 empire. Progressively morph this army into an efficient civil service with a strong diplomatic arm. Peace treaties galore, trade agreements ensue. You've just concluded the French Revolution, just in time to hop on the train of the nascent Industrial Revolution.

[u/Yseader]

Dans le genre, mais en Français, il existe la chaîne AlterHis qui traite d'uchronies partant de faits historiques comme de sujets plus fantaisistes, comme l'Atlantide ou l'existence de Cthulhu.