DBWI: Effects of a surviving Napoleon
- Thread starter Malos
- Start date
Gian
Banned
Very likely that the French Empire would not have collapsed sooner. The assassination gave renewed cause to the Coalition, leading to Joseph forced to sign for peace. (In the end, France retained most of its gains, but had to cede their Italian holdings back to the Pope and Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Illyrian Provinces back to Austria.
Had Staps been unsuccessful, Napoleon would have been able to drag France into a longer conflict until inevitably being stopped, which could mean harsher terms for France (maybe a restoration of the Bourbon kings to outright balkanization)
Had Staps been unsuccessful, Napoleon would have been able to drag France into a longer conflict until inevitably being stopped, which could mean harsher terms for France (maybe a restoration of the Bourbon kings to outright balkanization)
I don't know if I would say that Napoleon would have inevitably been stopped if he had continued living. We are talking about the man who essentially subdued Europe in the span of six years. The only way I could see Napoleon getting stopped by the Coalition with force is if he threw his Armee somewhere where most of them wouldn't come back. Maybe a longer Peninsular War?
He did leave behind an unfinished war in Spain. I'm not certain if he could have completely subdued that country if he'd lived on. Then again, he did intervene pretty successfully just before his passing.
The lack of an heir of course led to great problems, as Joseph quite simply was not up to the task of keeping the empire together. Napoleon really needed an heir. With Josephine being too old to bear children, would he have possibly considered having their marriage annulled, Henry VIII-style?
The lack of an heir of course led to great problems, as Joseph quite simply was not up to the task of keeping the empire together. Napoleon really needed an heir. With Josephine being too old to bear children, would he have possibly considered having their marriage annulled, Henry VIII-style?
well considering that Napoleon had effectively lost the war when he was captured at Aspern earlier the year...
Napoleon getting captured definitely contributed to the negotiations in Schonbrunn being much less harsh and might have helped Staps get a good shot on him, but Austria was still beaten down by the remnants of the Grande Armee. Hell, I think that encapsulates how big the Grande Armee really is. You could have a lunatic commanding it (as they did while they fought to get Napoleon back) and it'd still win due to sheer size.
"With Josephine being too old to bear children, would he have possibly considered having their marriage annulled, Henry VIII-style?"
This raises an interesting point, because of course the Napoleonic Code provides for divorce. There is no reason to do things Henry VIII style.
So Josephine gets paid off, and Napoleon looks for a Hapsburg or a Romanov princess to marry. The question is which one?
And once the Bonapartes are tied by marriage to the older royal houses in Europe, their position becomes much more secure than in OTL.
This raises an interesting point, because of course the Napoleonic Code provides for divorce. There is no reason to do things Henry VIII style.
So Josephine gets paid off, and Napoleon looks for a Hapsburg or a Romanov princess to marry. The question is which one?
And once the Bonapartes are tied by marriage to the older royal houses in Europe, their position becomes much more secure than in OTL.
Aspern Essling turned out to be a big mistake. The crossing of the Danube without enough secure bridges combined with the spring melt was a stupid thing to do. Davout handled it better a few weeks later and secured a brilliant victory over Archduke Charles in almost the same place at Wagram in July.
The Schonbrunn Parade was a tragedy waiting to happen. Stapps was motivated, as he confessed prior to his exrcution by the spectre of Napoleonic rule over the Confedertion of the Rhine States, Napolon's lst words "You cannot kill a sect with cannon balls confirm this.
It would be true to say that Ger,man and Italian nationalism would have led to unification sooner or later but, had Napoleon lived perhaps his would have been achieved with less bloodshed
On the oher hand some have argued that Napoleon would have been defeated sooner or later. Perhaps a German War of Liberation led by Austria and Prussia. However, it is hard to see how this could happen given the Russians were pretty firmly alled to France in 1809 deploying a Corps of Observation which ended up seeing no action. Napoleon was certainly not foolish enough to invade Russia. Had war with Russia ever come Napoleon would have fought a defensive war as he did in Bavaria in April 1809. Joseph of course was no general and left war to he very well qualified Davout.
Indeed, when war withRussia fnally came in 1812 Davout stood on the defensive in the Duchy of Warsaw and crushed Kutuzov's invading armies in a campaign even more brilliant than Napoleon's 1809 Bavarian campaign. After that, even the new Lord Liverpool administration realised the futility of an expensive and unwinnble war with FranceSpencer Perceval was assassinated by the deranged John Bellingham who thought he had a grievence aganst the government, ironically over compensation over his alleged unjust imprisonment in Russia. During the 1812 Polish War he Prussian generals Yorck and Blucher attempted an uprising. Tjhat of curse resuled in the removal of the House of Hohenzolern and the Partition of Prussia between Bavaria, Saxony and the Duchy of Warsaw, all firm French allies. As a result of the Partition the Duchy of Warsaw became the Kingdom of Poland in 1813