ITT: France's biggest mistakes

I'll start

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_(1799)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_System
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar
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>Implying Americans couldn't have just invaded Louisiana and gotten an insta-surrender from the frogs

If anything, the mistake was ours for giving them money for it instead of just taking it.

How would they project their force there? We were allies so we just bought it.

Hey, almost my entire state was purchased in that transaction! Neat!

this. there was to reason to create unnecessary conflict for both

Napoleon had hardly any men there. It was either do what the americans said or they would take it by force

Losing Haiti, and letting all the whites there get exterminated.

Trying to hold onto Vietnam.

All their bullshit in Africa.

Importing slaves into the Caribbean

Haiti would be a paradise without niggers

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that's a good one too

Instead of wiping out the nignogs and replacing them with Ethnic French they imported the nignogs into France

Bravo idiots

Also don't get me wrong France is awesome. They're responsible for so much progress in STEM, culture, philosophy, music, warfare, politics, literature, architecture, etc.

But they also fucked up a lot. But the US has fucked up a lot too.

This cuck.

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This. Napoleon needed every penny for his European conquests. He had no way to defend the Louisiana territory from the Americans. If he had conquered Europe and forced the UK to submit, he probably would've turned his gaze back across the sea.

letting migrants fuck their shit up

Napoleon was actually a bro

he didn't really want to fight any Europeans, his original ambition was to take over the Middle East

Unfortunately he lost his campaign to take on the Ottomans en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_(1799) and had to go back to fighting Europeans.

t. The Eternal Frank

I don't know about that. Certainly he wanted to make a name for himself - he believed all his life to have been born under some lucky star. He took advantage of the revolutionary period in France to show his prowess as a military commander, and for sure he wanted to take over the Middle-East originally, but after he had himself crowned Emperor and instigated the continental system, it was pretty clear his intent was to conquer Europe as a quasi-Roman Emperor (all the best European dictators are Roman fetishists)

napoleon would have been our ally had he gone through with what he wanted to do and make a new france in the louisiana territory. would have been glorious

Nah, that's just what he would've wanted you to think. The truth of the matter is that Napoleon, like all great conquerors, had an insatiable battlelust that could not be quenched. He didn't have to invade Russia in 1812, and he would have held onto his Empire. He wouldn't have to invade the United States, either, but he probably would, because that's just the kind of warlord he was.

warlord? not once did napoleon declare war. every single one of his wars were fought defensively. read. a. fucking. book

iberté, égalité, fraternité

>What is the invasion of Russia in 1812

your ameridiot education is severely lacking in quality

dumb shit canadian. russia was going to attack to napoleon first

Napoleon really didn't give up much by agreeing to the Louisiana Purchase. The British Navy was too strong to maintain any connection to America. With the Agreement, at least Napoleon would get some cash. So no real mistake....

What the hell was france going to do with the land? Look at the ratio of land area to water access..... It didn't make any sense to keep it.

>What is the invasion of Russia in 1812
A military campaign?

Napoleon was pissed at Russia because they were dealing economically with Britain, violating Boney's Continental System (forbidding trade with the Brits). Although there was a brisk Black Market still going on in Europe...

They absolutely were not. Russia and France quarrelled on a number of issues, but primarily was the question of Poland. The Russians refused to recognize the independence of a Polish state, and Napoleon invaded in 1812 partially to punish them over this transgression and partially to punish them over flouting the continental system, like mentions.

I was responding to the idiot who said Napoleon never fought an offensive war.

It's more complicated than that

Russia was violating the Continental system en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_System Napoleon had established. It was a policy he implemented after securing total European boycott of British goods, aimed at ending Britain's domination of global trade which had developed thanks to their rule of the sea.

The only way for Napoleon to defeat Britain after the French Navy was soundly destroyed in the battle of Trafalgar was to force on embargo on British goods and hopefully destroy their economy to the point that the Brits would give up and settle some deal with Napoleon.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar

However once the Spanish and Portugese began successfully rebelling against French rule over Iberia Russia took that as a sign of weakness and began trading with England again. Also the Russian economy was going down the shitter without British trade anyway.

This forced Napoleon's hand, he had to invade Russia or else risk his continental system failing and England continuing to oppose French rule of the continent. Inevitably they would fund some sort of revolution as long as they continued to oppose Napoleon, which is exactly what they did in Spain and Portugal.

France's biggest mistake was not letting their protestants repopulate their new world colonies.

The Huguenots were some of the most financially successful people in France, and rather than use them to further global imperialism they sold them into slavery to the Muslims!

Meanwhile England sent all their prisoners and pesky religious radicals to the new world, and now all Europe speaks English.

france is our friend dont let the jews make you forget it

iirc not only was that land worthless other than the odd fort every few hundred miles, it was also due for handover to the spanish by a peace treaty.

even if france held it it could be blockaded very easily on just the mississipi delta

I don't support Napoleons dominance of Europe

Europe has always been cool because it wasn't united at all

But Napoleon was clearly a genius and had always had more ambition than being just an "emperor." He wanted to create a new system in Europe based on merit and ability and technical and scientific (STEM) and organizing the economy in a way that benefited the productive class.

You can see that in the way he idolized enlightenment political rulers like Fredrick the Great of Prussia.

Such a black market that French military suppliers had to resort to it. Napoleon's own armies marched in English boots and slept under English blankets.

i come from a smuggling town in britain, you can still go look at the tunnels

it was a trade that almost everyone from any class was involved in here, really interesting shit. obviously it's not just to do with the napoleonic wars, smuggling had already been a thriving trade due to the tariffs we had. so when the continental system kicked in we already had an illicit economy ready to profit from that.