[qwertyuiop1234]

I can never understand why Wellington would call soldiers 'scum of the earth'. Soldiers don't get anything whether 'His Majesty' wins the war or not. No wonder Scotland wants independence. They sent soldiers to Wellington's expedition. Scots Grays were the ones who charged French line and batteries at Waterloo which avoid disaster. And yet they are 'nothing but beggars and scoundrel' to Wellington.

History is written by winners. Had Napoleon not gone to Russia, European feudal system would have fallen much earlier, and we'd be writing this in French.

Napoleon's contribution to history is not military feat. It's the civil code, education, equal opportunity, emancipation of jews, tearing down of ancien régime and giving birth to idea of nation states.

[arethuza]

A longer quote rather puts the "scum of the Earth" thing in context:

A French army is composed very differently from ours. The conscription calls out a share of every class — no matter whether your son or my son — all must march; but our friends — I may say it in this room — are the very scum of the earth. People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling — all stuff — no such thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children — some for minor offences — many more for drink; but you can hardly conceive such a set brought together, and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.

[qwertyuiop1234]

He said that many times throughout the war. At a formal settings obvious he'll say it a little nicer. British soldiers get paid only one shilling per day and are constantly short on supply and had to plunder to survive. There is even a book on why soldiers are not 'scum of the Earth'

http://www.amazon.com/All-Kings-Shilling-Wellington-Commande...

[spacecowboy_lon]

Much less so than the french who lived of the land - which means you cannot as easily concetrate force at the schwerpunkt (the key point of the battle field)

[cmdkeen]

Napoleon didn't tear down the ancien regime, he was still a very junior officer when that happened. If anything he turned a Republic back into an Empire.

[qwertyuiop1234]

He overthrew many monarchies in Europe, and installed French civil system to the newly occupied regions. Although he did assign his relatives to be monarchies in those areas, the reforms are real and the difference weren't felt until he was defeat and old monarchies came back. His military conscriptions certainly offset his reforms in popularity. Italians vied for independence from Austrian Empire after Napoleon was defeated. Interestingly, it was Napoleon III (Napoleon I's naphew) who helped eventually Italian won independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italian_War_of_Independe...

[cafard]

Yes to the civil code: the rest were mostly in place before Napoleon, weren't they?

[qwertyuiop1234]

well, - religious toleration: french revolution basically wants to kill off the Catholic priests. Napoleon brought back Catholicism since there were still a lot of catholics in france but stripped its privileges. He was the first to emancipate the jews.

- His military conquest speeded up the abolition of feudalism across europe. Civil code is put in place in occupied regions.