What If Napoleon Was Never Defeated?

[Music] a running joke especially online is to call the white flag the french flag because the french always surrender despite being funny this is not only unfair but also untrue throughout its history france was one of the biggest military powers in europe and the world and one of the moments in which this was most evident was when through the leadership of napoleon bonaparte france subjugated most of europe this video isn't about the history of napoleon and his rise from a regular army officer to emperor of france and europe although that's a great story and if you want i can do a video about his life it also isn't about how he managed to conquer and subjugate most of europe although i'll mention some details about it this video is about the possibility of napoleon never having been defeated not as many people usually imagine this going off the idea of what if napoleon won the battle of waterloo i think that by that time his power was too weakened as it was and it wouldn't have been a victory at waterloo which would have stopped his demise no it would have had to happen slightly earlier so i won't go as far as to say he would have been able to successfully invade and conquer russia and then great britain but what if after the failed invasion of russia napoleon had been able to negotiate peace with his enemies stopping his expansionist objectives and being able to maintain the sizeable dimension of france at that time as well as his control over most of the continent through client states and the placement of his family members as leaders of those countries how would history be different since that time and how would europe look like today what if napoleon still wasn't victorious against britain and russia but also was never defeated in 1812 at the height of his power napoleon invaded russia with a pan-european grand army consisting of 450 000 men they entered russian lands in june but in november they were already on their way back utterly defeated by russia's resilience war techniques and of course the winter didn't help out of the 450 000 men who marched into battle only around 27 000 returned home defeated with 300 000 of their comrades fallen in battle and over 100 000 captured seeing an opportunity in napoleon's historic defeat russia sweden austria and several other german states joined russia and once again attacked france by the side of the british starting a sixth coalition war against them after a defeat at the battle of leipzig in 1813 the anti-napoleon coalition offered peace to the french called the frankfurt proposal this was way before the battle of waterloo took place and offered a compromise for peace the proposal put forth by at the time austrian foreign minister metternich was that napoleon would remain emperor of france but france would be reduced to its natural borders the natural borders were the pyrenees the alps and the rhine france would therefore keep control of belgium savoy and the rhineland while giving up other conquests including all of spain poland and the netherlands most of italy and germany as well so here is where we can enter our hypothetical idea what if instead of losing this six coalition war napoleon had won it what if after returning defeated from russia napoleon had successfully regrouped his army into an even greater force and been able to fend off the advances of its european enemies perhaps the battle of leipzig would have been different with napoleon emerging victorious and himself putting forth a different frankfurt proposal in which he would agree to stop expanding any further and sign for peace in exchange for maintaining all of france's current lands and client states this would be highly unlikely even if napoleon had been successful against this new coalition there aren't many reasons why they would agree to peace napoleon's strength was already wavering as it was and his and consequently france's demise seemed inevitable but what if the coalition had agreed to peace on napoleon's terms and what if this piece had lasted how would history have changed since this moment in 1813 there would be some immediate effects let's separate them in three territory ideals and international impact first territorially with napoleon's empire not falling apart a lot of things would have gone different in europe's geopolitical map there would be the question of portugal which napoleon effectively failed to invade three times however portugal wasn't exactly winning the war with its royal family and ruling class having had to flee into exile in brazil and the only resistance against french rule being small portuguese forces aided by british allies who had sailed there to help them two things could happen either portugal would be granted its european territory back or it would be granted to napoleon in the peace treaty thus stopping the royal family from returning in the second case either portugal would have disappeared with the portuguese royalty choosing brazil as their new main kingdom or they would have maintained the title of portuguese kings but whose main capital territory had become brazil and so therefore brazil would have never had their independence because they would already be independent just with a different name the colonizers portugal prussia would have never recovered its former borders nor acquired part of poland saxony rhineland and westphalia in the congress of vienna which in real history followed napoleon's defeat at waterloo and reorganized europe prussia would therefore not have become one of europe's greatest powers and failed to unify germany into one state since half of it was still under french rule rhineland and westphalia were particularly important because of their industrial development russia and then germany was a strong industrial power in part because of this failing to acquire these other germanic lands it's unlikely russia would have been able to pave the way for german unification perhaps they would still form a north german confederation but they would never get the west and the south and so one of europe's main powers in the 20th and 21st century would have never existed italy in name would be as it briefly was a puppet of napoleon in the north of current day italy but in the south would be another puppet naples not to mention the western part directly under french control and so italy as we know it would not exist when napoleon was defeated and europe reorganized denmark was also forced to cede norway to sweden mainly as compensation for the laws of finland to the russians which the other coalition members agreed should remain russian if napoleon didn't lose perhaps denmark would have managed to maintain norway under its control and the norwegian independence process would be different or even non-existent other non-existent states would be belgium the netherlands and luxembourg of course they didn't all three exist straight after napoleon lost but their rise to independence would be much more difficult if not impossible the papal states would not have been restored and so perhaps today the vatican its successor state would not exist as an independent state but france would have certainly had to make some compromises especially to calm the giants of russia which still had effectively defeated them in war and so it's likely that the duchy of warsaw meaning most of poland at the time would have still gone to the russians would have also been able to keep finland britain would perhaps have captured the french colonies they had conquered in north america which were in reality partly restored at the end of the napoleonic wars in this case maybe that restoration would not have happened as compensation for britain accepting french dominance over western continental europe this would leave france incredibly powerful in europe but without a colonial presence in america according to this map in 1812 france still held domains in africa and asia directly and indirectly to their control of spain and therefore its colonies as well i think the sale of louisiana shows napoleon didn't really care about colonialism at least in america so i think it's acceptable to think that he would trade france's remaining colonies there in exchange for britain's signature on a peace deal that assured the status quo in europe maybe throwing in their domains in india and indonesia as well we obviously can't assume that in this hypothetical scenario everything would have just stayed the same forever so maybe independence movements would have arised in these french occupied places and be successful against them effectively being able to eventually establish a united germany a united italy and a free netherlands for instance then in second place what would the consequences be in terms of ideals napoleon's ideas would have proliferated even more across europe most of which at least in its western port was directly or indirectly under one single ruler him in most european countries subjugation in the french empire brought with it many liberal features of the french revolution including due process in court abolition of serfdom the creation of a system of schools and universities he also preached religious tolerance especially towards islam and judaism in fact on invading egypt when he was still a general napoleon is said to have been impressed with the local faith in a letter he wrote i hope that the time is not far off when i will be able to unite all of the wise and educated men from all countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of this religion but he did not embody and would therefore not spread one key aspect of the french revolution democracy napoleon began as an officer in the revolution but through his military and political rise he turned into effectively a king an emperor and a dictator rising to power he overthrew the directory which was essentially kind of a republic to establish a regime where he was the first consul effectively a king but here's the thing napoleon's defeat sort of brought back temporarily european absolutism so would the change in that regard be that big and even today we have so much influence of napoleon's reforms that it leads us to believe that maybe if he had stayed in power in that aspect the change wouldn't be so big however bonaparte also closed down a lot of newspapers in france and imposed severe restrictions on the information that the people received freedom of speech was practically non-existent despite eventually taking over the papal state's territory he also signed the conquered at in 1801 with the pope and made peace with rome encouraging catholicism in france and going against the revolution's opposition to the church he also restored titles that had existed during the french monarchy and furthermore the very much important civil code still used in part by governments today was extremely unfair towards women and third the consequences for the rest of the world after napoleon lost the peace attained by the congress of vienna enabled the greatest intercontinental migration in human history immigration to the us rose to record levels as 30 million europeans relocated to the united states between 1815 and 1914. in this hypothetical scenario peace would have also followed but would this migration still have happened the napoleonic wars also played a key role in the achievements of southern american independence against spain with the same have happened and napoleon not cared about the colonies of its puppet state or being indirectly his colonies would he pay more attention to them and seek to assure they didn't achieve independence at least not as easily some things would not have changed however britain would simply have agreed to francis peace terms and control of continental europe they would not have been defeated and so their naval domain of the oceans would have continued the lack of a british defeat is an important element in believing that their eternal ally portugal the only of european nations to challenge the french mandated continental blockade against the british would in fact recover its land and remain present in europe and the british colonial dominance would have likely continued as well once again it was napoleon who decided to sell the louisiana territory to the united states because he didn't have many colonial aspirations and preferred to focus on european expansion even if his expansion would have stopped because of this hypothetical peace deal they would have had to manage the aftermath of the war and the rule of these vast and perhaps uncooperate european lands so colonialism would probably still not be a priority in reality many italians were already rebelling against french rule and it would probably have happened in other places like the benelux catalonia switzerland or the rhineland these independence movements would likely cause trouble for napoleon and this french empire it's ironic while wanting to conquer and rule over most of europe napoleon also instilled in many europeans the ideas of patriotism for their own country the glorification of france and its empire made those he conquered want to do the same and so enforcing this ideology of his would probably have been a recipe for its own downfall as occupied nations would want to rebel to achieve the same type of glory that napoleon's friends had so now we've understood the immediate consequences how would france go forward in history after this hypothetical peace deal that assured its european domain france itself would directly reach into the benelux catalonia western italy and elyria in the balkans although illydia is likely to become its own puppet state or join italy due to its territorial separation from the rest of france they would retain spain maybe portugal western germany through the confederation of the rhine in northern italy through the kingdom of italy and southern italy through the kingdom of naples as puppet states most of which if not all ruled by napoleon's family members despite abdicating from its american and asian colonies they probably wouldn't do so in africa and would expand into the north and west of the continent in the same manner they did in reality perhaps even more without the competition of spain and italy and maybe not even portugal who would in this scenario be their puppet states in reality napoleon died in 1821 being exiled on the island of saint elena it's hard to say if this would have also been the date of his death if he had remained emperor of france but regardless it's important to wonder how things would go in this alternate reality after his death who would inherit the throne and would that person be able to maintain control over the vast empire especially the rule over puppet states the placing of napoleon's brothers and cousins in the seats of power of other european nations makes us believe that yes it would have at least for a while in fact house bonaparte still ruled france for a little bit of time after napoleon's defeat and death however briefly in fact despite heavily disputed the house of bonaparte continues until today there currently is a man calling himself napoleon vii but it's kind of messy he's the grandson of napoleon vi who was the son of napoleon the fifth grandson of the original napoleon's younger brother jerome bonaparte in this hypothetical scenario it would be these heirs one after another who would need to rule and try to keep the empire throughout the 20th and 21st centuries world war 1 and 2 as we know them would end up not happening because germany would likely not have been united the antons and the allies would probably never form as britain and france would remain the main opposing forces of europe instead of being allies along with russia austria and the ottomans but other wars would have maybe happened taking the same dimensions only with different reasons world war one was caused by problems in the balkans this could have still happened russia would have still intervened to defend serbia and the only question is who would france and britain side with when a united germany and italy weren't in the picture with germany out of the picture due to this scenario perhaps the ottomans would also not side with austria therefore maybe not being said against france and britain and not losing their empire which could have gone on until today or simply fallen apart on its own due to local independence movements perhaps ridding us of some of the instability in the area which dates back to the british and french occupying those lands napoleon or his heirs might also seek to once again go to war on their own in europe as their empire was in part based on the idea of restoring the glory of the romans or of charlemagne's empire in fact at napoleon's coronation which took place at notre dame in paris in 1804 two separate crowns were brought for the ceremony a golden laurel wreath recalling the roman empire and a replica of charlemagne's crown if they were able to successfully colonize north africa it's likely that they would want once again to venture into egypt and the middle east going to war with the ottomans and wanting to meet the roman achievement of controlling the mediterranean they would also maybe have to go to war with the austrians over the balkans and it's unlikely the british would sit by and watch them do so so even if napoleon had been more successful after the failed russia campaign and achieved a medium-term peace war was certain to continue and the likelihood of napoleon winning them one after another is unlikely in real history it took 6 7 coalition wars to defeat him maybe in the scenario it would take 10 or 11 but the end result would probably be the same except slightly delayed it makes us think that due to the nature and ambitions of napoleon and his empire their downfall was inevitable in fact it's usually the cause of the fall of most empires over ambition and over extension causing its maintenance impossible in the odd chance that they would have been able to maintain the empire maybe they would be able to find some type of federal solution granting the initial puppets further independence and local autonomy to other areas like savoy catalonia and the benelux effectively forming a federal state similar to what we have today as the european union which isn't federal but you know what i mean in fact some say the european union is the successor of napoleon's empire in terms of an idealized united europe just like charlemagne's empire or that of the romans i don't agree with that i think the eu is so much more and so much better providing a union in which countries maintain their own identity but it's interesting to see that had napoleon not been defeated at that time the outcome today would probably be the same or very similar version of our reality either he would have lost later on and everything would happen as it did just slightly later or his empire would eventually have transitioned into a federalized type union which only goes to show that even having been fully defeated the legacy of napoleon sort of continues in europe today but of course this is all hypothetical and just me wondering and thinking about what could have happened so that was an overview of the hypothetical scenario of napoleon avoiding defeat and being able to sign for peace with his european enemies before the battle of waterloo maintaining his european empire and what hypothetical consequences that would have immediately in europe the world and in the way that history would have taken place in that case with specific historical events likely not having taken place or happening in entirely different manners i prefer real history to exploring these hypothetical what-if scenarios but they're also fun to think and talk about so if you have any other ones you think would be cool to make a video on just let me know in the comments thanks so much for watching this video subscribe if you want and i will see you next time for more general knowledge you

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 228,338

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist

Id: YXLPGxJ8N28

Length: 20min 39sec (1239 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2020