A Brief History
On May 20, 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul (later Emperor) of France, made a mistake he later regretted the rest of his life when he reinstated slavery in the French colonies. The revolutionary movement had previously put an end to slavery in France and its colonies, and this step backward was perhaps instigated by Napoleon’s wife, Josephine who was born in Martinique, a French colony with a slave based economy. Reinstating slavery had disastrous consequences, especially in the country now known as Haiti.
Digging Deeper
Of course, Napoleon had many successes, and is believed to be the second most written about person in history (after Jesus Christ). Still, he made his mistakes. Although Josephine was the love of his life, she was 6 years older than his age of 26 when they married and was a widow with children. Unfortunately for Napoleon, Josephine was apparently past bearing children and did not leave him with an heir, something a crowned head of Europe could not do without. Her failure to bear his child resulted in Napoleon divorcing Josephine and marrying Marie-Louise, an Austrian woman he did not love just to bear him an heir (which she did).
The blunder of marrying Josephine and making her Empress just to dump her may have had something to do with the fact that she never visited Napoleon during his exile. He died with her name on his lips, obviously a lesson not learned. Ironically, Napoleon left no lasting royal line, as his young son with Marie-Louise died young and never married, while Josephine’s hereditary lineage touches much of European royalty even today.
Possibly the biggest blunder of Napoleon’s political and military careers was the invasion of Russia (1812), marching the Grand Armee all the way to Moscow, only to have the Russians burn the place and everything in the path of the French. As Germans found out over a century later, Russia is nowhere to be stranded without adequate clothing and supplies when the winter hits. When the French rag tag remnants of the Grand Armee finally walked back to France, barely alive, they did so without over 400,000 of their soldiers out of the 450,000 that had invaded.
The debacle in Russia allowed the enemies of France to gather new allies, and this coalition offered peace terms to Napoleon and France in 1813. Once again, Napoleon miscalculated and blundered by failing to respond in a timely manner. The coalition would have allowed Bonaparte to remain as Emperor of the French, but France would be reduced to its “natural” boundaries, giving up the lands Napoleon had previously conquered. By the end of the year, Napoleon reconsidered, but it was too late. The coalition had rescinded the peace offer and another blunder was in the books.
Napoleon was beaten in 1814 even though he continued winning victories in battles and was losing the war of attrition. The French armies grew weaker and the Allies armies only grew. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and accept exile on the island of Elba, where he made his next major blunder.
Napoleon’s escape from Elba, where he was allowed to keep his title of Emperor and be in charge (even to the point of creating a small army and navy), in order to return to France and once more trying for all the marbles was a mistake. Marching on Paris and gathering an army along the way, the Emperor was back in charge, but only for a period known as “The Hundred Days.” This second reign ended with the crushing defeat at Waterloo and this time Napoleon was exiled without the nice touches he enjoyed at Elba. Stuck on the cold and forlorn island of St. Helena, Napoleon lived out the rest of his days (with no visits from either wife) undoubtedly thinking about what he had done wrong and wishing he had chosen other options. If so, that would make the great man not much different from the rest of us, as most of us have our own regrets. Of course, when you are Napoleon Bonaparte, your regrets are by nature epic. C’est la vie!
Question for students (and subscribers): What do you think was Napoleon’s biggest blunder? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Connelly, Owen. Blundering to Glory: Napoleon’s Military Campaigns, Third Edition. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
Markham, J. David. Napoleon’s Road to Glory. Brasseys, 2003.
Zarzeczny, Matthew D. Meteors That Enlighten the Earth: Napoleon and the Cult of Great Men. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a depiction of the Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres (23 February 1802), during the Haitian Revolution, is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer.
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