Part V

Influencing Nations: Diplomacy and Legacy

In this part . . .

M uch of Napoleonic history can be summed up as simply Napoleon versus Great Britain (or England, as I often prefer to call it, though why I insist on letting the Welsh and Scots off the hook is beyond me). The Brits (that would be the folks who live in Great Britain) just didn’t seem willing to let Napoleon rule France, never mind all of the European continent. For a short time, though, it seemed that the two countries might actually work out their problems, and this part covers the promise and the failure of peace between these two great antagonists.

If relations with Great Britain didn’t always work out, Napoleon had more success on the European continent and left a number of important legacies. Here, I have a look at Napoleon’s contribution to a united Europe (partly deliberate, partly accidental) and the idea of religious freedom, especially for the Jews.