Reacting to Napoleon 1813: Battle of the Nations | Epic History TV

Hello! I'm an American on a quest to learn more about history, geography and the universe in general. In this video Napoleon finds himself surrounded by the allied nations, as they all come together in a decisive battle for the future of Europe. If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe!
00:00 - Intro
02:10 - Comment Time
06:52 - Reaction
47:35 - Outro
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Link to original videos: • Napoleon's First Victo...
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#NapoleonicWars #France #Europe #HistoryReaction

[@SoGal_YT]

👋 Thanks for watching! Like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video 👍🏻 Follow me on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/sogal.yt/ Twitter: twitter.com/SoGal_YT Facebook Page: facebook.com/SoGal-104043461744742 Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/238616921241608

[@erikrungemadsen2081]

The first gunpowder rockets are from 13th century Song dynasty China. The word Rocket shows up in the English language in the 17th century. The rockets in "The star spangled banner" are the same Congreve rockets used in this battle.

[@MarkVrem]

That D-day analogy was pretty damn good.

[@cjrecio5702]

Can you watch the Spanish Civil War by Feature History, please?

[@samuel10125]

Once you have finished up the Napoleon series would you be interested in looking into WW1 if so one channel I can recommend is the Great War Series they follow WW1 day by day from start to finish.

[@HenioGracie]

@@MarkVrem was not, very americancentric and ignorant of bloodoest and cruelest war ever fought - the ww2 eastern front.

[@jamesbooth3694]

To answer your question about Bernadotte, a few years earlier the Swedish crown was in a dilemma. The king had no heir and they needed a successor for the nation. They had seen that Bernadotte was a competent military commander and he had treated Swedish prisoners honourably during his period under Napoleon. They invited him to become king and he did.

[@faderneslandet3489]

A small correction, Bernadotte was invited to become Crown Prince of Sweden and adopted the title during the Napoleonic Wars. He didn't become king until 1818, four years after the end of Swedish intervention in the Napoleonic Wars when the Swedes invaded Norway. So in 1818 he was infact King of both Sweden and Norway.

[@jamesbooth3694]

@@faderneslandet3489 ah, thank you :) didn't know that

[@wafs1393]

To clear on your confusion: 1)Borodino was the "bloodiest SINGLE day in the NAPOLEONIC WARS" while leipzig(battle of the nations) was bloodiest battle in European history before WW1 2) Also by "Germany" he meant the general area around modern Germany, so like the Confederation of the Rhine and Prussia. 3) General Maison was on the French side. 4) Marshal Bernadotte became the crown prince of Sweden. 5) In terms of why they didn't complete the encirclement, I don't know either, but it could've been that if they did send thousands of troops to cut him off, Napoleon would probably realize that the armies on the other fronts were now under strengthened and he would probably attack them and win.

[@andrewshaw1571]

Not easy to cross the river in force, if it was, leipzig wouldnt be such a critical location. Sending large amounts of troops across would take a lot of time, which would alert napoleon either to defend or as you say, the opportunity to attack. The deployment on both sides of the Muhlen Fluss at friedland caused the russians issues supporting each flank when the french attacked, crossing the river with their temporary bridges would have done similar at leipzig, given the huge numbers in question.

[@wafs1393]

@@andrewshaw1571 exactly what i was saying, hence he would straight-up attack and this time he would win as their forces would be understrength

[@jesusramos5955]

I think that until WWI, the bloosiest battle was Cannas ,40.000 Legionarios in one day.

[@wafs1393]

@@jesusramos5955 nope, firstly that battle totalled a bit over 80,000 on both sides. Borodino totalled 70,000 and nations totalled over 100,000. These are casualties and not deaths. Search up all the battles wiki and compare casualties. Sure 40,000 legionaries died in one day at Cannae. But talking in casualties and probably deaths, borodino was greater.

[@jesusramos5955]

@@wafs1393 This true, but Cannas was the battle with more death in one day until WWI and with less population.

[@poshboy4749]

About Rockets.The British first came across across them in India when they were fighting the Anglo-Mysore wars (around the turn of the 19th Century), Arthur Wellesley himself (the future Duke of Wellington) faced them in battle when he was commanding troops in india. After that and seeing their potential the British started to develop their own versions based on the work of Sir William Congreve - hence 'Congreve Rockets'.

[@pissfather6798]

They also famously used them against the us in 1812

[@charlesmills8712]

For a quick second, I read that as Arthur Weasely and thought you were pulling my leg.

[@janmortensen9314]

congreve rockets was used during their siege of copenhagen in 1807

[@Nonsense010688]

6:33 borodino was the bloodiest "day" of the Napoleonic Wars, but it only lasted one day. Leipzig (and many other battles) have more days.

[@JamesBradock]

wtf is "leizip"? ^^

[@Nonsense010688]

@@JamesBradock I don't know what you are talking about... ;)

[@AdurianJ]

Leipzig had a bad time of it in the 30 years war as well

[@Nonsense010688]

@@AdurianJ not as bad as Magdeburg...

[@olmeno]

@@JamesBradock it's lei.zip document which was infected with napoleon virus

[@anzaca1]

8:43 The region itself was referred to as "Germany". The name had existed since the time of the Romans, who called it Germania. The various kingdoms there; Saxony, Bavaria, Prussia etc were known as the German kingdoms. Hence why, when they unified in 1870, they formed the German Empire.

[@lukeplayer1215]

1871 after another war against France. The war began in 1870 and ends in 1871

[@vattghern257]

there was title of German king in the HRE

[@xenotypos]

Austria too, the German(ic?) cultural area was never fully unified.

[@flyingeagle3898]

the name garmany may indeed be as old as the romans but it is not what they call themselves. Deutschland!

[@admiralpaco507]

@@flyingeagle3898 I find it fascinating that depending on the language, the etymological origin of their name for "Germany" varies wildly. Deutschland coming from Old High German, Germany from Latin, Alemania referencing the Alamanii tribe, Saksa referencing the Saxons, Niemcy from Protoslavic and literal dozens of variants from all of these different name origins and others that we aren't even sure of the etymological origin (like Latvia's name for Germany "Vācija"). This is of course the case with many countries but I'm not sure there is another modern country with quite so many etymological origins as Deutschland.

[@reecedignan8365]

“It seems Napoleon is going to win another battle” Dear ma’am, be prepared to be surprised

[@DaveF.]

Well, she's not going to be surprised now you've posted that, is she?

[@omarbradley6807]

@@DaveF. Well Napoleon will win 13 more battles, anyways

[@CovfefeDotard]

@@DaveF. he posted after she found out he lost

[@DaveF.]

@@CovfefeDotard Oh, fair enough -my bad. Apologies, Reece.

[@fredbarker9201]

Why? After Leipzig Napoleon won a ton of battles still. Difference between battles and war

[@Nonsense010688]

Germany is at the most basic level a geographical term independent if there is a state or kingdom or federation ect. with that name. Think of it this way: no matter if the USA exist or not, you still call the land "America" (or North America)

[@Oscuros]

That America analogy didn't work at all, since German the language is native to Germany, English is native to England, and you clearly once again don't mean the natives, even though there were more of them and they still have a stronger claim to their own lands and languages. But I love how it works for Americans, because cognitive dissonance is your game, like with being confused about being English colonists and English colonists that like to pretend to be natives of somewhere else while killing the natives and erasing their languages and cultures. I guess they're both the same, but that latter is slightly more deluded and hypocritical.

[@Nonsense010688]

@@Oscuros I'm german not american. So maybe you should consider that you have less insight into the world then you believe yourself. Especially in your judgement of millions of people. Also, the language spoken is relative meaning less for the name of the land. German and English didn't exist as langues, when these areas where already called "Germany" and "England". Let alone that originally many languages where spoken in both, before "German" and "English" came to be. The languages got their name from the lands not the other way around.

[@peterjackson4763]

@@Nonsense010688 German got its name from the land. English got its name from the Angles who were one of a group of people who invaded southern Britain after the Romans gave it up.

[@mangalores-x_x]

@@peterjackson4763 German also got its name from a tribe, by the Romans. Deutschland means "people's land" aka land of the people identifying as such by language and culture. That said the Regnum Teutonicum existed in medieval times and consisted of the Germanic principalities and nobility and was just overshadowed by the imperial institutions when Italy took its leave and Bohemia was ruled in personal union of the emperors. While dialects and regionalism was strong the German lands had cultural similarities allowing more migration between people there and the principalities were existing within a united framework, just with exceedingly weak central authority as the German Princies successfully reverted imperial attempts at centralization.

[@holgerlinke98]

@@mangalores-x_x there has never been a german tribe though. Also the word german doesn't really help in the conversation.

[@EvsEntps]

Just wanted to point out that the French Franc doesn't exist anymore as France, along with many European countries, adopted the Euro a while ago. What you looked up was the Swiss Franc (Switzerland's currency) to Dollar exchange ratio. Also, because exchange ratios change over time, even if you could use a current French Franc to Dollar exchange ratio it would give you an inaccurate dollar amount because exchange ratios vary over time; you would need the contemporary exchange ratio of 1813 for an accurate conversion and only at that point could you factor in inflation to get a sense of what that could hypothetically buy you now in 2021.

[@davidhollins870]

Leipzig was a city with stone buildings. The villages were clusters of wooden houses around a stone church, but crucially surrounded by ditches and orchards, so they are very good defensive positions - similar to Aspern and Essling.

[@andrewclayton4181]

I got the impression that SoGal was surprised by the density of the communities. She of course is familiar with the US where these places are widely scattered, unlike Europe.

[@davidhollins870]

@@andrewclayton4181 Yes, but modern settlements are easy to access and dry, without much surrounding woodland. In those days, where there is s major river, the ground was often flooded at various times of the year, so there are big ditches, marshy ground etc. The roads are just tracks and there are few bridges.

[@Swindondruid2]

8:21 One of the reasons the British and Portugese advanced quickly in Spain from 1812 onwards is that Napoleon withdrew tens of thousands of French troops from Spain to boost his army in Germany. Remember, Napoleon had to completley rebuild the French army after the Russian campaign and needed all the veterans he could lay his hands on. Even so, the French army in Germany was packed with raw conscripts.

[@jasonjason6525]

You should react to Otto Von Bismarck how he unified Germany as a country.

[@melkor3496]

Yes she definitely should.

[@tonym480]

beat me to it LOL

[@Manu-rb6eo]

I think you guessed but "vive l'empereur" means long live the emperor 😉

[@anzaca1]

18:07 Bernadotte had become the Crown Prince of Sweden a few years before, and was now part of the Sixth Coalition.

[@davidsavage6910]

Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland also had troops involved in D-Day.

[@HingerlAlois]

Technically more as the German military incorporated a lot of soldiers from Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia,...) etc. that were stationed in France as they were considered to be to unreliable to fight in the east.

[@jonsouth1545]

The French Marines are on land as by that point the French navy had been effectively destroyed by the British and what few ships the did have left were not willing to leave port so the marines had nothing else to do.

[@AdurianJ]

Al Murray has a WW2 podcast called "We have ways of making you talk" i think you would love the Family Stories episodes where he reads peoples stories about ww2

[@dominikjanda8832]

31:52 i really dislike when someone says that d-day was start of the defeat of Hitler By june 1944 Russians had already defeat Axis powers and Germany would have fall even without landing in Normandy

[@Nonsense010688]

true. D-Day was less important for the question of the Axis would lose the war, but how Europe would look like post WW2.

[@melkor3496]

@@Nonsense010688 If D day failed all that would change is that everything up to France would probably be under the iron curtain of the Soviet Union.

[@reecedignan8365]

@@melkor3496 50/50 on that. You’d likely see Germany United under the Soviets vs East and West. But Italy would have been NATO, Norway and Sweden would have been NATO, and Denmark would have likely been NATO controlled still - it would have been push and shove politically but it would likely have been “restored” to Sweden and its control after the war. Tho you could potentially have seen a Euro proxy war in Denmark if it did go such a way with it potentially going South Denmark and North Denmark with Sweden backing the north and a soviet Germany backing the south. As for the overall effect of D-day (coming from a Brit who loves history) I do think it played its part in helping end the war, as it did force resources from the Eastern front that could not be wasted - Germany’s already running out of fuel, and having to burn more of it trying to “save” Paris didn’t do them any help. But yes, Operation Citadel pretty much sealed Germany fate with so much lost armour, fuel and man power, that not only did the Soviets push battle group centre back with massive loss of equipment, they also took quite the advantage in ground, reforming their salient. And with such a line, and the complete collapse of Battle Group South in Ukraine, Operation Bagration was the death nail of Germany. It just needed a few more strikes after the first to seal the coffin, but the allies did help, they atleast provided the hammer and nail and helped hammer in the corners.

[@melkor3496]

@@reecedignan8365 well by the time d day happens compared to in 1941 by the time d day happens in 1944 Germany was basically out of fuel they had lost their big oil sources in Romania I think I don’t remember exactly when they lost the Romanian oil fields. And yes d day helped end the war faster but that’s the extent to it I’d say the German army was already broken long ago and on its last legs.

[@deepyamandas1192]

The british rockets were based on the rockets of the mysore kingdom in India after mysore was defeated by the british. You can find the painting of the mysore rockets even in NASA hq.

[@merlin4084]

To clarify the last comment you read, The Battle of Leipzig was the largest multi-day battle fought in Europe to that point in time with the largest casualty figures of any battle in Europe before WW1, but Borodino to this day still holds the record for the bloodiest single day battle in European history, though this is discounting battles in ancient times as the sources tended to over inflate the number of people that fought in those battles. For example Julius Caesar says that his army of 70,000 strong Roman army fought an army of 250,000 Gauls (they inhabited what we now know as France) and killed every last one of them, which is literally impossible and more likely he fought around 50,000 to 100,000 Gauls and killed 20,000 to 50,000 of those. 250,000 dead sounds better in propaganda though.

[@Nonsense010688]

32:46 you are not the first to ask this. Schwarzenberg was criticized to not completely surrounded Napoleon. He defend himself bei saying that it isn't wise to force your enemy in a desperate land stand situation.

[@the.french.lobstercolinrau2728]

I reckon some truth in Schwarzenberg's words. Sometimes cutting one's line of retreat isn't the best strategy... Your goal is to make your oppenent quit or surrender. Sometimes circling an army is sufficient to frighten them and make them surrender. But sometimes it can have the opposite effect, i.e the enemy force, ready to battle, would now fight over-violentely/resiliently out of despair to gain the inch necessary to drop out. In short it's really context dependent, (morale, what's at play for who etc..), but knowing Napoleon, and even more so it's commanders, French soldiers & officers... making them fight desperately isn't something I'd particularly aim at.x) And anyway, in Leizpzig battle context, Napoleon's retreat route was out of reach (too much distance and rivers to cross at the morning)

[@Nonsense010688]

@@the.french.lobstercolinrau2728 there is the famous Sun Tzu quote expressing the same sentiment. And while I think that with the knowledge we have, you could have been able to bull it of, given that Schwerzenberg was operating in the "fog of war" and couldn't be so sure about this. So for me it falls under "excusable mistake".

[@iainmalcolm9583]

After a quick glance through the comments, I've got nothing more to add so just helping out the YT algorithm. Looking forward to the next chapter in the series and wondering who is going to win at Waterloo.

[@alansmithee8831]

A similar comment to yours was according to AJP Taylor the excuse for the Franco Prussian War as per comments about Bismarck a couple further down that put Germany on the map.

[@anzaca1]

32:42 The Coalition had tried to cut off the French line of retreat the previous day, but Napoleon had sent additional troops to reinforce Lindenau, and keep the route open.

[@chrislawley6801]

You are becoming so much more, I loved how you walked in on this as well as all the history you appear to Love. This is great learning more with you questioning my own understanding & I wonder how Roger is going to cope when you finish with France ; )

[@steved6092]

Hi SoGal ... Enjoying (all) your channel and especially this series on Napoleon ... you're taking all the hard work out of my research ! 👍😂 ... It's great to see how your channel is evolving and to see and hear more of your humour introduced ... Hopefully you get as much pleasure out of your research, script, editing and uploading as I do watching ... Well done ... great work ... thank you. .. looking forward to more ... (Enjoy lunch)

[@jobfranschman8436]

Epic history is going to do an video about Spain 1813. The battle of Victoria. It is coming in the next weeks.

[@bigjo66]

About the Marines, I think they mentioned in one of the previous videos how Napoleon started using them in his armies to help replace the manpower that had been lost in Russia.

[@omarbradley6807]

The Marines were a special unit from the "Moyenne Garde", it is true who sailors were now soldiers, but those guys were a multi task force.

[@adrianburchell8075]

also about marines being ship soldiers...at this time, there were few French ships at sea, so the unemployed marines joined Napoleon's army.

[@davidhollins870]

It is no different from British Naval Battalions in WW1 - the French Navy was largely blockaded in port, so the Marines had nothing to do.

[@the.french.lobstercolinrau2728]

"of course he is leaving before all that" . we have to understand than more than a general, he was also the ruler of a Nation. Napoleon didn't lack any courage or even soldiery-masochism, and quite sometimes he had to be empeached of getting involved in too dangerous moves. Retreating for him was crucial since he had to oversee every military and political moves happening in the most populated country out here, and therefore had to delegate every "sub-important" operations.

[@deaks25]

Liking the new logo and intro. Two thumbs up for both.

[@oliver8296]

It was mentioned in the previous video that Napoleon recruited marines into the army in 1813. After all, much of the French navy was stuck in port at this point.

[@oliversherman2414]

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!!

[@AnthonyLopez-lb2bd]

A quick thing, the area or region we know as Germany has existed since the Romans when it was called Germania, just like the name Americas refered to the continent before the United states of America emerged

[@Nonsense010688]

23:54 well around big cities you often would have smaller villages (Leibnitz is a city). Nowadays they are often "gone" because the big cities adsorb them at one point (often during the industrial revolution or first half of the 20th century).

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

Yeah, around 1800, Hyde Park was on the western edge of London; it's now considered to be in central London.

[@zarabada6125]

8:39 It is a complicated subject but here is a brief summary. Several groups of people known collectively as "germanic tribes" had existed in central Europe since Roman times. If you get into Roman history, you will see that a large part of early german identity is formed from the german tribes resistance to Roman occupation (the Romans invaded the territory a few times but could never hold it for long). Most of the Holy Roman Empire (that formed in the power vacuum left by the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire) covered the territories held by descendants of the germanic tribes. The Holy Roman Empire for much of its existence was a collection of tiny states that were supposedly loyal to an Emperor but there was little central power. Many of the small states warred with each other or with the Emperor at different points in history. In the later centuries of the Empire, Austria was the dominant force and frequently used military force on the rebellious smaller states. Napoleon broke up the Holy Roman Empire and created a new political grouping loyal to him called "The Confederation of the Rhine." This was made up of germanic states that wanted to be free of the control of the Austrian Emperor, so they allied with France against their former monarch. Now that Napoleon is losing power, the Confederation is breaking up as its members pick sides. Bavaria has decided that allying with Austria and Prussia will be best in the long term (this would put Bavaria on the winning side if the 6th Coalition beats France). Other states who oppose Austrian and Prussian dominance are still gambling on Napoleon winning, so remain loyal to France for the moment. After Napoleon's defeat and in the absence of both the Holy Roman Empire and the Confederation of the Rhine, there will be a collection of small germanic states that are dominated by Prussia in the north and Austria in the south. The next half century after Napoleon's defeat will include several events that will cause most of the germanic states to unify into a single Germany.

[@MarkVrem]

Also to add perspective the German language is the most widely spoken language in Continental Europe. Not really sure how to write the rest of what I want to say without some smartasses chiming in and adding more to this comment. but.. If you combine Dutch, German, Danish, and Austrian. That is a hefty chunk of the European heartland. When you are the majority you don't necessarily have to be all that united for security, you just naturally have it. This strength and power are a reason why they never really ever had to truly be one nation until France and Russia became serious threats.

[@PeterDay81]

Thank you young lady for reading out my comment.All the best from England and stay safe.

[@jobe5514]

In the words of Count Dooku - I've been looking forward to this!

[@xenotypos]

The part 5 and 6 of the Marshal series really captivated me. The 6 "best Marshals" according to Epic History TV were really all exceptional men.

[@dlanor9312]

In the period between the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the British Army was (a volunteer force) suffered from severe underfunding and recruitment. This left in a very run down state by the start of war in "Colonies". This led to the British government to hiring soldiers from the "German" states of Hesse and Hannover to serve alongside the regular British Army regiments units in campaign. They were ultimately defeated by the Franco-American forces at Yorktown.

[@jesusramos5955]

It must be remembered that the UK was already at the beginning of the industrial revolution and that gave it the ability to start producing goods on a large scale (supplying its allies is a good example) and to develop new technologies. As evidenced by those "rockets", the rifles and their cannons in your fleet. It is incredible how little Anglo-Saxon historiography mentions this advantage.

[@GSD-hd1yh]

The question about food preservation was more to do with supplies for the army. Napoleon knew that it was impractical for a large army to "live off the land" for any length of time. So a method of preparing food so it could be carried with the army without it going rotten would be a great advantage. Nicholas Appert wasn't the first to experiment ways of preservation, but he was the first to do it on an industrial scale. Think of it more as solving a logistics problem.

[@Nonsense010688]

31:30 Epic History arguably underplays the "battle of the nation" character of the battle, given that at the time "germany" wouldn't have been a single nation but Saxony, Prussia and so on would have been.

[@dejanvranic8833]

I love your history videoes SoGal. Keep up the good work. I would love to see more videoes from ww2. Can I suggest Operation Market Garden and battle of Kursk? Also check out the music band Sabaton from Sweden. They make songs about fameous historical events and people. Fun to watch with a lot of historical information. 😊

[@audibleadventures9004]

I was about to go to bed, but never mind napoleon upload just dropped :D on another note, Britain just became the 4th largest military defence budget in the world, heavily investing in our navy once more.

[@Glund117]

Sadly we are reducing our armed forces further though, its getting embarrassing.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

@@Glund117 Not really reducing that much; the Army was substantially under strength anyway.

[@Luredreier]

11:12 Rockets had already been used for a long time in Asia (China) by this point but it was just starting to be experimented with in Europe. The Brits also used rockets during the bombardment of Caupenhagen that lead to them taking half the Danish-Norwegian navy.

[@Rafael112able]

Actually the situation on the sea during the American War of Independence was crucial for Americas victory. Great european powers like France complicated Great Britains communications and supplies. Without that Britain could have brought more troops and supplies and then the outcome could have been different.

[@allenwilliams1306]

The only reason that the American War of Independence was successful was that Britain could not be bothered with it very much. There were other more important fish to fry.

[@Nonsense010688]

My compliments to the new intro and section slides.

[@Groffili]

Marines in that era were the infantry soldiers on board ships. They were ment for landing operations, as well as boarding other ships or to defend against boarders. Because this "detached" status, they were used to operate in smaller groups and independently of higher command. Most were well trained, and because of all that were considered "elite" troops. But France at that point had no need for marines. Her remaining fleet was mostly blockaded in the ports. So when Napoleon had returned from Russia and desperately needed a new army, he took everything possible. This was mentioned in the last video... mentioning the National Guard home defense troops, the new young recruits that were called the "Marie Louises"... and the marines.

[@deaks25]

On your question about French marines; at this period Marines are soldiers assigned to naval vessels to carry out boarding actions or defend against them. When Napoleon was collecting his reinforcements after the Russian campaign, he pulled these soldiers off the ships of the French navy and into his land army (If I remember rightly, one of the previous videos did mention marines briefly). This was common practice in general at the time when assaulting things like coastal fortresses along with 'landing' (ie, taking off the ship and bringing onto land) some of the ships guns to use as impromptu artillery due to even a frigate tending to have guns comparable to normal artillery and lots of them (USS Constitution has 50 guns all above 24 lb shot weight, which would have been considered large guns in a land army). Marines were often very well trained marksmen but were not used to operating as traditional line infantry so were probably less than ideal.

[@declanellery8500]

Borodino was Napoleon's and Europe's bloodiest day of battle, while Leipzig was the bloodiest battle taking place over several days. Like how Antietam (a one day battle) was the US Civil War's bloodiest day but Gettysburg (a three day battle) was the bloodiest battle.

[@melkor3496]

;) But what a nice surprise just before I was gonna sleep I see you released a new video. Oh well sleep can wait.

[@Mrbird-pw2mg]

Bernadotte was adopted by the heirless King of sweden, with napoleons consent.Bernadotte made it clear thou that he would serve the needs of sweden and not france, so in 1813 he joined the coalition against france.

[@tobiusgregory2805]

I hope you find time to do a video on ANZAC Day for your Australian fans!! Love your work as always.

[@MrIaninuk]

@SoGal. Have you tried your hand at any of the PC strategy games of those historical times?

[@jonsouth1545]

Thier is a very solid tactical reason for allowing your opponent to have a potential avenue of escape. When you are fighting a particularly brutal war where you can expect to receive no quarter from the opponent any surrounded the forces will often fight to the last man, as if they think they are likely to be tortured by the enemy it's often considered to better to fight and die than to surrender and such a battle is usually far more brutal than normal. For the attacking force this is very dangerous and results in exceptionally high casualties than could otherwise be expected (see Battle of Stalingrad as an example were that vast majority of the Soviet casualties occurred after they had surrounded the opponent and were closing the pocket against a determined enemy who knew what would happen to them if they got captured). If you allow the force the potential chance to escape they are much more likely to try and use it thus allowing you to close that avenue and strike the opponent that is disorganised and not in a prepared defensive position allowing you create maximum casualties on the opponent at minimal risk. On top of this retreating troops often have a negative moral impact on neighbouring troops making the route much bigger (see May 1940 where the collapse of the 55th Division at the Battle of Sedan and the loss of the heights round Bulson lead to a cascade reaction in neighbouring divisions that led to the fall of France completly undoing the tactical successes the French had achieved only a day earlier eliminating 2 panzer divisions at Hannut and Gembleux) while a "Heroic last stand" is often a massive moral boost for the defending side (see the Alamo and the legends of bravery around Davie Crocket etc) When fighting a war completly surrounding the enemy and giving them no possible avenue of escape is often the worst thing you can possibly do.

[@user-ox1bh3vh2t]

Hi, everybody! Good animation on an intro!

[@geraldimhof2875]

(future) Aersopace engineer here :) So the first uses of rockets are from China like you say and date back to the 1200s. They used gunpowder as propellant and are akin to today's fireworks. A rocket is essentially a controlled explosion behind a payload (object/mass that you want to accelerate). The Mongols captured that technology when invading China and it travelled to eastern Europe and Middle-East. First uses of rockets in battles in that region date to the 14th-15th century, but it always was very unreliable, as, like I said, it is essentially an explosion. British scientist are reported as the first the write down rocket dynamics for the first time in the 19th century, and the Battle of the Nations is the first time the mathematics are put to use to improve our understanding of their flight. Up until the 1920s, rockets used solid propulsion (essentially burning gunpowder). Goddard is one the first scientist to create and test liquid propulsion engines. These leaps helped the Germans (who were the best engineers and scientists at the begining of the 20th century) to build the first ever sub-orbital rockets and from there I guess you kinda know how it goes. All in all, a lot of technologies that boomed in the 20th century are actually very old concepts (like the computer for example), but improvements in the scientific method, finding new resources and better mathematical models launched the age of rockets.

[@alansmith1989]

I'm not at all knowledgeable regarding the Napoleonic wars and its been a real learning curve following this `series` Not so much the videos in themselves (Though they are great) but others folks tremendous knowledge when they answer Sogals enquiries. Some incredible knowledge from them-awesome!! 👍

[@alansmithee8831]

Well said namesake. I only just learned about comments from this channel. I could not get over how SoGal kept picking topics that I had or would have watched but also how I wanted to say me too. There was even someone on here with the same name who made good comments like you do.

[@alansmith1989]

@@alansmithee8831 Cheers Alan. I have really learned a lot following Sogals Napoleonic wars series. The name Alan Smith is hardly as rare as hens teeth though- so always the chance that Alan Smith's encounter each other on social media. As I commented on another site Alan Smithee is sometimes used as a `Pseudonym` for Film Directors when the studio then re-cuts the film and said Director wants to dissociate themselves from the `altered` product. Nice to know there's at least one Genuine Alan Smithee. 😉😊

[@erikrungemadsen2081]

SoGal i heard in the comments that the battles of WWI were pretty epic. Conrad von Hötzendorf, Luigi Cardonna, Eric Von Falkenheim, Aleksei Brusilov, Douglas Haig, Djemal Pasha and Joseph Joffre from the afterlife "That is certainly one way to describe it!" WWI is just bad news, followed by sad news, followed by even worse news, and then it starts all over again.

[@StephenButlerOne]

I think there is much epic about ww1. As an ex royal marine, I'd of not liked to operate in any war before ww2. Actual tactics and not trying to get your soldiers killed at the first opportunity. I always say to the wife if I could go back to any point in time it would be ww2. I feel I missed out on a great adventure.

[@erikrungemadsen2081]

@@StephenButlerOne The scale is deffinetly epic. Personally i am a big fan of the English war poets of that period. Owen and Sasson wrote some really moving stuff, most of it provocative as all hell for its time. Also Tolkiens description of the deadmarshes is really striking. These guys saw some really disturbing things durring their service.

[@StephenButlerOne]

@@erikrungemadsen2081 they definitely did. Rather them than me.

[@oscarsusan3834]

They built a big shrine type monument with a large hall at Leipzig commemorating the defeat of Napoleon. You can climb the stairs to the top. The first level is regular stairs but the next 5 or 6 levels to the top you’ve got the be a midget and a hunchback with a large stride to ascend to the lookout.Its an exhausting climb. When your at the top you see that the terrains flat as a tack.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

The Congreve rocket is basically a weaponised firework. Like the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore in their mid-to-late 18th century wars with the British East India Company, they use iron rather than paper of card to contain the propellant, which allows a greater internal pressure, and thus improves range. Accuracy is, so far as individual rockets are concerned, a combination of getting the elevation of the tube right, and optimism. Of course, quantity has a quality all its own, and a near miss by a rocket is harder for troops to ignore than a cannon shot.

[@alansmithee8831]

At 8:35 the missing bit of the Peninsula War is where I wanted to mention about how in the TV series Sharpe goes home to Keighley, where my grandparents started work in the mills shown in the episode one hundred years later aged twelve. I hoped to use this as a way to say that the industry in UK caused hardships and you might look at this and Chartism and the Peterloo massacre. Unlike Sharpe many British veterans got shipped to US as per war of 1812 video. Keep your head down for the rockets at Waterloo Roger or risk losing your hat.

[@stuartmcivor2276]

But in the books, he's from London. He was only a Yorkshireman in the TV series because Paul McGann, who was to play Sharpe, injured himself playing football and Sean Bean was brought in at the last minute.

[@alansmithee8831]

Yes, I always say TV version. The Yorkshire Tea advert would be just wrong too if it were not for this Mr Bean.

[@mandyb8675]

8:54 regarding the question about Germany. Prior to Germany becoming a nation in 1871, there was no country in Europe called Germany. So when people back then said ‘Germany’, they generally meant somewhere in Central Europe.

[@nirfz]

Around 31:00 What about italy? The allies were already on "mainland europe" (if i am not mistaken) when D-Day happened. 1943 they were in mainland italy, and 1944 they landed in normandy. Something completely different regarding the time back then, because of something i recently found: in 1812, so one year prior to this battle, Austria as the first country, had prohibited slavery and serfdom within its borders. (in § 16 of the then established "common book of law" is still in todays version unchanged.) Later they added a law regarding ships of the monarchy not allowed to be used for tranport of slaves. (Some consider france to be the first country to prohibit slavery, but that was only for a short time during the revolution an didn't make it to a permanent law.)

[@clivejones5546]

The plan to defeat Napoleon was an adaptation of Wellington’s plan in Portugal and Spain when for much of the time he was heavily outnumbered and found his Spanish allies unreliable. When asked how he intended to defeat the huge French armies he replied “in detail sir, in detail”.

[@markwilliamson2864]

That was a fun intro with Roger but I do feel he will soon be insisting on equal billing with Sogal!😂

[@untruelie2640]

Thank you for responding to my comment! :D Epic History TV made a series of documentaries about WW1 as well. You could react to them too, they are quite interesting. :) Also Yes, Leipzig is in (modern day) Germany. "Germany" back then was just a geographical term like "Scandinavia" or "The British Isles", rather than a politcial term. It wasn't a single country, but consisted of many independent states (mostly monarchies like the Kingdom of Prussia or the Grand Duchy of Hesse, but also of some city republics like Hamburg or Frankfurt).

[@StephenButlerOne]

12000 old FF is probably closer to 400000 USD today. Not only did the FF get revalued in the late 1880s, it then got revalued when the FF to euro happend. That along was 6.6FF = 1€ . So it's a bit of a mine field . I did find an post calculation that 20000FF in 1790 (so close enough date) is equal to just over $600k. So I'd say for 12k FF in 1810 would be closer to $400k USD. +/-

[@MarkVrem]

That was actually a pretty cool moment that she went ahead and sort of came up with a reasonable estimate LOL. It was one of those moments where I'm like "oh god she is using the Swiss Franc, cause she doesn't know the French Franc doesn't exist anymore".... but then as she came up with a number, there is genius in that ignorance. The rest of us would have given up a step earlier and gotten no number at all lol.... Random question.. Back then were two Francs Swiss and French the same thing? Most of us know they were separate things in our lifetime, but how it all began who knows lol.

[@StephenButlerOne]

@@MarkVrem no they was different currencies. Edit- just checked wiki and the Swiss franc wasn't even a thing until 1848, so we a 40 years off that Franc's inception.

[@rasmuspersson2374]

About Bernadotte It all started with king Gustav IV Adolf. He was deposed in a coup in 1809 because of the huge discontempt of the fact that Sweden had lost Finland to Russia during the "Finnish War" of 1808-1809. Finland had been a part of the swedish empire for more than 700 years, we lost 1/4 of our territory and 1/3 of our population to Russia so this was a major blow. After that Karl XIII was crowned king, but he had no heirs. And he was very old, so the government had to find a new heir quickly.The best candidate were Fredrik Kristian II of Augustenburg-Holstein. A messenger from the swedish government traveled to France to meet up with Napoleon because they wanted his opinion/consent of their choice of Fredrik Kristian II as crownprince But the messenger acted on his own behalf during his visit in France because he was convinced that the best choice for Sweden should be a french marshal. Because he believed that it would help Sweden to get back Finland from Russia, and restore its glory days basically. He asked Bernadotte, he was interested. He had to change his religion to protestantism but he didnt mind. And he was not popular with Napoleon so that played a part. The messenger was obviously not popular after that so he was put under house arrest when he came back to Sweden. The goverment was not convinced of it at first and wanted to elect Fredrik Kristian II as planned. But after a french PR-campaign they were eventually convinced and elected Bernadotte as crown prince. When Karl XIII died 1818 he became king. Bernadotte was not interested to take back Finland ironically. He invaded Norway instead. But he was a good king in many other ways. Since then, House of Bernadotte has been the reigning royal house of Sweden. So he became king out of pure coincidence, basically.

[@adrazuel]

very cool. how about an episode on pyrotechnics? after your napoleon series of course...

[@davidhollins870]

Leipzig stands on the Elster (magpie), but it was not a single, regulated river. It was a confluence if several smaller rivers and thus much of the surrounding ground was marshy. Leipzig controlled the only crossing, so coming from the SE, Schwarzenberg had little opportunity to get troops across. There was also the possibility that Napoleon would break out to the north, which would have meant that coming from the south, Schwarzenberg would have been unable to get part of his troops into action until Leipzig and the bridge were secured.

[@michaelrobinson2687]

In response to 23:20, Leipzig is the city while the smaller ones surrounding it are villages. And in response to 47:50, Waterloo takes place in Modern Day Belgium (Kingdom of the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars) Waterloo, Netherlands (now Belgium) 50.680°N 4.412°E Coming up, the battles leading to Napoleon's first exile. He gets exiled, comes back then fights the Battle of Waterloo. In regards to the Map of Europe, the Unifications of Italy and Germany occur sometime around 1870.

[@TheSoleGOAT]

At the time there was no unified Germany, so in the video it's used rather as a geographical term than a political. Before, there had been the Holy Roman Empire, which was basically modern day Germany territorywise, but politically not really a unified country yet. The HRE was disbanded in 1806 (Napoleon forced Emperor Francis to give up the crown. To avoid losing face, Francis created the title of Emperor of Austria). Then there just were many independant German states like Austria, Prussia and Bavaria. After the Napoleonic Wars they formed the German Confederation (which also was not yet a unified German state) and later Bismarck unified Germany with the exclusion of Austria.

[@StephenButlerOne]

Yes as far as I can make out even today Germany has many states with a feral type government, akin to the US setup.

[@FreyaofCerberus]

The reason that the villages and hamlets look kinda random on the map is that basically they were. In medieval times because large amounts food couldn't be transported long distance every town or city needed massive amounts of farmland around them to grow their own food. However by the time of Napoleon better preservation and transportation technology existed so rather than having farmland surround cities they could have numerous small villages that grew food and collected it that could then be transported to the city. Each of these small towns would generally be located on either a point of geographic significance like a river, bridge or road. Or they would be just placed roughly at the centre of the surrounding farmland with secondary industries like mills and bakeries in them. This expanded network of food production allowed cities to grow larger and dedicate more space to industries.

[@andrewclayton4181]

Yeah. Cities couldn't exist and grow with out the means of feeding them. The railways enabled massive expansion. They could supply large amounts of fresh food daily. In the days of horse and carts, the people had to live near the food production areas.

[@somedice6548]

There are some cool videos on the evolution of european borders throughout history. Might be interesting to look at if you found the napoleonic map to be fascinating.

[@anzaca1]

12:10 The Congreve rocket, like all early rockets, was fuelled by black powder. As a result, they could very easily explode if mishandled. The Congreve rocket was first developed in 1804. The rockets themselves ranged in size from as small as 6 pounds all the way up to massive 300 pound rockets.

[@mssays8525]

About 13th century (some say before) The Chinese invented gunpowder and thought of arrows using the gunpowder to battle. They saw that gunpowder fizzed and propelled if packed lose and exploded if packed tightly - hence the rocket

[@GSD-hd1yh]

There are different ways to look at which was the biggest battle - there is the physical number of soldiers who take part, or the largest number of casualties, the greatest number of cannons used, or even the highest number of nations taking part.

[@joshthomas-moore2656]

The Congreve Rocket was made in 1804 by a Sir William Congreve and was based on rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore (which was in Southern India) which had fought against the British, the initial rockets were made of cardboard till 1806 when they were made from sheet iron. By this time they could have anywhere from 6 to 100 pounds of explosive. Also most rockets at this time were very inacurate and were more useful at scaring people and horses and for attacking large areas you couldn't target a house and expect to hit it you more wanted to target a large field full or troops.

[@sitting_nut]

"d - day is start defeat of hitler"?! not by a mile . stalingrad, if anything specific need to be mentioned, was the start of his defeat and it was way before d-day. by d- day, germans were in full retreat in eastern front, after multiple defeats in much larger battles than any battle on western front, including d-day.

[@vinz4066]

Dont forget Moskau , Kursk and Operation Bagration

[@Luredreier]

24:05 Back during this time most people traveled on foot, horses where expensive after all. So the distance between villages in a lot of places around the world depended on the distance a man could walk in one day.

[@fenseti3793]

Hi, have you seen fallen of ww2 videos? i'd definitely recommend it!

[@vaudevillian7]

Fantastic stuff, as others have said the Unification of Germany could be something worth reacting to (and Italy). Think I suggested before, that right after the Napoleonic series a look at the Belgian Revolution could be worthwhile. I mean you could just keep going and do the July Revolution and 1848 Revolution in France, and keep going until you get to the Franco-Prussian War and German Unification 😂

[@AdurianJ]

Bernadotte need to save his Swedish troops because he don't trust the Coalition to give Sweden Norway like they have promised. The Swedish invasion of Norway in 1814 was Sweden's last war.

[@Jon.A.Scholt]

When our beloved narrator mentions "Germany" we can think of it as a geographic region instead of the modern political entity. Up to this point the many Kingdoms, Duchies, Free Cities, etc that made up "Germany" were no longer united by the Holy Roman Empire (essentially ended by Napoleon years before) though some were under a Napoleonic creation called the Confederation of the Rhine, centered around the Kingdom of Westphalia which was ruled by the youngest of the Bonaparte brothers Jerome. Fun fact; Jerome married a woman in New Jersey about 10 years previously, had children with her but was convinced by Napoleon to come back to Europe and renounce his marriage. So there is an American branch of the Bonaparte dynasty and many went on to achieve positions of importance in the US government.

[@clivejones5546]

Napoleons four greatest attributes were his monumental ego, his ability to leave death and destruction in his wake, his ability to break every treaty he made and his skill at abandoning his soldiers to their fate whenever things turned bad.

[@schimmelfennig726]

Bernadotte became Cown Prince and later King of Sweden, then betrayed Napoleon and joined the coalition. He was actually quite successful even after the war and today´s swedish royal family is still his family line. After the Napoleonic Wars he conquered Norway for Sweden by the way.

[@aragorniielessar1894]

Well yes Norway was forced into the union with Sweden, but Norway got to keep its constitution and parliament. Norway remined nominally independent within a personal union with Sweden under the Swedish king. The Kingdoms retained separate institutions, except for the king and the foreign service and policy.

[@EK-gr9gd]

Till 1806 it has been "Holy Roman Empire" (of German Nation), from 1648 (Peace of Westphalia) the constituents were allowed to have own foreign relation and enter into alliances. The "Empire" depended more on personal leadership than on territory. It was a quite complex "entity", but it last some 900 years.

[@long-timesci-fienthusiast9626]

Hi SoGal, in reference to the size of the British Army, in the American War of Independence, for example, troops from at least 1/2 Dozen German States formed part of the Army. They were all Protestant & connected in some way to the then King George III. He was the 3rd member of the Hanoverian branch of the Royal family that succeeded Queen Anne. As you may remember, from your video about which part`s of the World the U.K. had invaded or controlled. The State of Hanover was for sometime under U.K. control, once the Elector of Hanover was offered the throne & became George I. Britain had never had a large land army, a reason why it was essential for the English fleet to defeat the Armada in 1588. Had the Spanish landed their troops, there would have been little to stop them capturing London.

[@andrewclayton4181]

Wow. That was getting heavy towards the end. Few points:- Yeah Marines are soldiers who fight as part of the navy. They can land and strike from ships, maintain discipline on the ships! Fight on ships in close quarters battles. It was a French marine who shot and killed Nelson. At this point in the war Napoleon had no navy, so the marines were incorporated into his army. Rockets. I met with a group of re-enactors who had made themselves a display set-up. Wearing the proper uniforms, the rocket was a metal shell about 6" diameter, 2ft long, fixed to a wooden pole about 8ft long, supported on a tripod 6ft or so high. The shell was packed with musket balls and was designed to explode in the air above the enemy formation. It was more spectacular than effective. The Chinese are credited with inventing rockets, centuries ago, but they were mainly used for festivals rather than warfare. I've also seen a programme ( presented by the historian Lucy Worsley ) where they recreated an Elizabethan fireworks party. That involved rockets for entertainment too. Why they are associated with space travel is that they are one of the few forms of propulsion that work in an airless environment. In warfare until recent times they were inaccurate and unpredictable. Map of Europe, has been shaped repeatedly by warfare. It was redrawn after Napoleon's frolics. In the mid 19th century the collection of states south of the alps were unified as Italy by an adventurer called Garibaldi. All the German states were united as one country after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. That was organised by the Prussian chancellor Bismarck. Germany is a federal state, rather like the US. Further drastic redrawing took placeafter ww 1 ( when the Austrian empire was chopped up) and ww 2 particularly in the east around Poland.

[@bugsby4663]

Why on earth was the decision to light the fuse to blow up the bridge given over to a corporal?

[@karenblackadder1183]

'Germany', like Italy was made up of lots of small estates rulud by minor nobles. For explanations of much of land battles, watch TV series SHARPE. For explanations of sea battles watch HORNBLOWER. As a Trekker, you will recognise a lot of James T Kirk in Horatio Hornblower. Gene Roddenberry based him on the C.S. Forrester character.. Get John Tams singing theme from SHARPE (an old British folk song)

[@clivejones5546]

Blucher was a fine general second only to Wellington. He was 71 by the time of Waterloo

[@jammyb89]

There’s also a thing that the American anthem is based off a English pub song. Also the original Stars and Stripes didn’t have stars but the union flag.

[@shanenolan8252]

Thanks

[@omarbradley6807]

On the improvement of Europe, some stuff, like the food preservation, are due to Napoleon promoting it for the military endeavours but other improvements promoted by him or his followers included from the metric system to the ambulances, to the sociologican philosophy, the egyptology betweem others are those considered to be his main "ilustrative character" as those sciences remained largely untouched. Yet his most important works is "The Civil Code". But what maded him unique at the time were his social reforms beyond the codification of laws. Some positive steps of the world society happen under his rule. The Jewish emancipation, the ending of discriminatory laws for religious reasons. The Decriminalization of the Homosexuality, the civil union, the abolishion of the inquisition and many other things who I believe it is important because some of those changes were reverted after his fall, and more than a century or even two had to happen to be "politically acepted"

[@EK-gr9gd]

The British fought Boney in the Peninsular (Wellington) and in Egypt (Abercrombie) on land. The British oft followed what is called a "peripheral strategy". Which is, where you cut off your opponents supply-lines and oversea possesions.

[@craigmccullough7333]

SoGal - you remember the line in your national anthem that talks about the rocket's orange glare? Well, they are talking about ship launched Congreve rockets. They were side stick rockets, virtually identical (apart from being very very much heavier) to the sky rockets you celebrate 4th of July with. The first rockets were Chinese. The Mongols took them from China to the rest of Asia. The Moghuls, a Mongol invasion remnant people, took rockets from Afghanistan into India, where the British would encounter them. They took the idea back to Britian where, under William Congreve they "improved" on the weapon.

[@neilbuckley1613]

Rocket artillery was used in Europe during the 30 years war.

[@thomassugg5621]

My paternal four times great grandfather who’s name was Heinrich Von Ehren was born in Hamburg in 1800. I wonder what he would have felt seeing the Russian liberation of his city in 1814 after years of French rule.

[@KoenBoyful]

Very weird to know that our great grandfathers were living this. One of my great great great grandfather fought in Waterloo under the Dutch troops as a Grenadier. I have a logbook with his name,height,facial features and promotion after Waterloo in it.

[@thomassugg5621]

@@KoenBoyful it’s strange to think that I probably had family fighting on both sides, because on my mother’s side I have another ancestor who come from Germany. This time he was from Bavaria I wonder if his father fought with the french.

[@marcquestenberg8385]

Survival rate of a wounded man on the battlefield in the early 19th century less than 50 percent. Gunshot wounds to arms and legs were usually treated with amputation of the same. Enemy wounded soldiers were usually not treated at all, and if so, only last.

[@andywilliams7323]

Waterloo and the huge battle that took place there is in central Belgium. About 30 miles away from the French border.

[@aragorniielessar1894]

The battle did not actually take place at Waterloo, it took place at Mont-Saint-Jean which was about 4.8 km south of Waterloo.