My guess is that Napoleon defeats Russia, Prussia, and Austria in a war and makes them finance his navy to invade Britain as punishment. Could that be a good idea?
I meant Napoleon would build a secret mega fleet with the vanquished forced to supply and pay for it.
And in the mean time he's going to be twirling his mustache eating frogs legs on his secret volcano lair island right?
That's just not possible. You can't build a fleet in secret and to rebuild his from the ground up without an officer corps or trained sailors would mean that anything he put to see would be shot full of holes in no time by veteran RN units. And the cost of building both a major war fleet and keeping one of the largest armies of the era would bankrupt him.
But his vanquished enemies would if they lost one of the wars.
I meant Napoleon would build a secret mega fleet with the vanquished forced to supply and pay for it.
I solved this problem remember, balloons! https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=311475
Would it take internal factors in Britain to make them lose against Napoleon? A stronger Luddite rebellion maybe?
Too late really.
If Napoleon is to have a chance at invading Britain then it can't alienate the second largest naval power on the continent (Spain). That would also give him the (land) forces to launch such an invasion.
My take would be that you'd need to have mutinies in the British fleet, either instigated by the French or happening with their knowledge and support. It happened in 1797 - have it happen later (say 1798 instead of Egypt campaign or 1805 Trafalgar) and it's possible that Napoleon could conduct a "Hail Mary" campaign looking to bring the British to the table. The objective would be to land a moderate size force on British soil and conduct a short campaign aiming at London.
Only problem is that it carries a very high personal risk - if Britian does not fold then the chance of Napoleon getting off the island safely is low. which is probably why he never risked it.
Or Luddites?
But then how did the Spanish lose Trafalgar then?
You'd need them to be so mutinous that they think installing a French dictatorship can't be any worse than the current British regime, though. At Spithead and the Nore, the mutineers still pledged to go out and fight the French if required.France and Spain gives Napoleon a shot assuming half the British fleet is mutinous. But it's only a chance - and not a good one.
Shell gun? Never really demonstrated a compelling superiority over cannonballs, though.I've no idea what sort of weapon might be suitable, though.
You'd need them to be so mutinous that they think installing a French dictatorship can't be any worse than the current British regime, though. At Spithead and the Nore, the mutineers still pledged to go out and fight the French if required.
Shell gun? Never really demonstrated a compelling superiority over cannonballs, though.