Napoleon an Admiral

It would be a lot harder,almost impossible really, for him to rise anything like as far or as quickly in the navy, if for no other reason than for how tightly controlled by seniority naval officers were in the era. It would also be remarkably difficult for him to gain the kind of major political involvement he did while in the army. This really is one of those relatively minor changes that really does pretty much change everything, to the point that I'd argue that question is almost as good as asking how the revolutionary era comes out without Napoleon in play.

As for his performance as a naval officer, I can't think of any reason he wouldn't have been perfectly competent. That said, there wasn't really a whole lot of room for any kind of revolutionary advances in naval warfare in the era. I imagine he could have done very well as a fighting captain, and likely would have been promoted to that kind of level, but if the French navy was anything like the British (I'm really not particularly familiar with the French naval officers of the era) he really didn't have the time needed to rise to anything like an admiral by the time of Waterloo, let alone Trafalger. I'd imagine at the most optimistic he could have commanded some sort of frigate squadron, but it's not like there were huge numbers of those. All in all I wonder if he might not have eventually up a (rather successful I'd imagine) privateer.
 
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It would be a lot harder,almost impossible really, for him to rise anything like as far or as quickly in the navy, if for no other reason than for how tightly controlled by seniority naval officers were in the era. It would also be remarkably difficult for him to gain the kind of major political involvement he did while in the army. This really is one of those relatively minor changes that really does pretty change everything, to the point that I'd argue that question is almost as good as asking how the revolutionary comes out without Napoleon in play.

As for his performance as a naval officer, I can't think of any reason he wouldn't have been perfectly competent. That said, there wasn't really a whole lot of room for any kind of revolutionary advances in naval warfare in the era. I imagine he could have done very well as a fighting captain, and likely would have been promoted to that kind of level, but if the French navy was anything like the British (I'm really not particularly familiar with the French naval officers of the era) he really didn't have the time needed to rise to anything like an admiral by the time of Waterloo, let alone Trafalger. I'd imagine at the most optimistic he could have commanded some sort of frigate squadron, but it's not like there were huge numbers of those. All in all I wonder if he might not have eventually up a (rather successful I'd imagine) privateer.

There were also high skilled generals other than Napoleon, but I think Michel Ney would take his place.

In the navy, if Napoleon were to join, the British would be screwed up. It may lead to an earlier Egyptian Campaign, but only providing the naval front.
 
It would be a lot harder,almost impossible really, for him to rise anything like as far or as quickly in the navy, if for no other reason than for how tightly controlled by seniority naval officers were in the era. It would also be remarkably difficult for him to gain the kind of major political involvement he did while in the army. This really is one of those relatively minor changes that really does pretty change everything, to the point that I'd argue that question is almost as good as asking how the revolutionary comes out without Napoleon in play.

If I recall correctly, didn't the French navy's officer corps suffer huge turnover due to the high proportion of nobility who left/were turfed out during the Revolution? You had Saint-André fighting in the Glorious First of June, etc.
 
There were also high skilled generals other than Napoleon, but I think Michel Ney would take his place.

In the navy, if Napoleon were to join, the British would be screwed up. It may lead to an earlier Egyptian Campaign, but only providing the naval front.

Hardly. There's no particular reason to believe he'd be better than Nelson and the rest of the French Navy would still be in a mess after all the decent officers got guillotined or driven into exile during the revolution.

Incidentally, another problem with this hypothesis is that when Napoleon was considering going to sea it was the *British* navy he was planning on joining. I don't believe the French navy ever crossed his mind.
 
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