Skip to main content

Napoleon 13 Plots

"Everything passes rapidly on earth, with the exception of the mark we leave on history."

Ends war with Austria and "quasi war" with America. . . . numerous assassination attempts . . . Letter from the would be Louis XVIII asking for restoration.  Napoleon's reply is polite, but a firm no. . . . Talleyrand uses inside knowledge to enrich himself . . . Tsar Paul 1 assassinated . . . Alexander I in his place--a mystery to N. Will he be pro-British? . . . Peace between England and France, at last, brings about exultation in England . . . peace favorable to France, Napoleon as excellent bargainer . . . Napoleon and Josephine start to dress like royalty making some wonder why the French had gone to the bother of decapitating Louis XVI . . . Haiti--rebellion by L'Overture . . . French troops struggle to put it down (N.'s racist ideas on display--he assumes Haitians can't fight.) L'Ouverture, "a black freeman who had owned slaves, imposed a constitution on Saint-Domingue that made him dictator for life." Brutal fighting follows . . . 30,000 French dead; 350,000 Saint Dominguans (of both races) dead.  "The Saint-Domingue business was a great . . . folly. It was the greatest error I ever committed. . . I ought to have treated with the black leaders."

Slave trade reintroduced by Napoleon in 1802 . . . Britain retained slavery until 1834 . . .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oppenheimer . . . film

 Solid opening 30 minutes (we're treating this like a mini-series).  O's involvement with left-wing causes . . . rift with Einstein (O thinks of him as over-the-hill and Einstein knows it.)  First splitting of atom.  Lawrence Lab in Berkeley--Lawrence practical applied physics . . . not O's strength.  Main actor is from Peaky Blinders.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Master Chapter 2

February 1895 (Alice died in 1892) Money problems, jealousy of Wilde; time spent with Lord Wolseley1; off to Ireland to lick his wounds; Irish unrest--Irish landlords boycott all social events; much time spent with manservant Hammond (homosexual attraction again); fancy dress ball, appalling to James, who is only happy in company of Hammond, though Hammond remains a servant and no more; little girl alone on the grounds--inspiration for Turn of the Screw?; conflict with Webster who alludes to Wilde's successful play and HJ's failure; Wolseley was an  Anglo-Irish  officer in the  British Army . He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, West Africa, and Egypt, followed by a central role in modernizing the British Army in promoting efficiency. He served in Burma, the  Crimean War , the  Indian Mutiny , China, Canada and widely throughout Africa—including his  Ashanti  campaign (18...
Post a Comment
Read more