Napoleon Bonaparte, thought to be one of the most influential and polarizing men in history, was, after his abdication in 1814 and again in 1815, exiled rather than executed. One might wonder why? On the surface the monarchies of Europe did have their reasons to do so.

After all he was the man who sought to bring the British economy to its knees, implementing the so called Continental system, the man who on more than one occasion embarrassed the Austrian and especially the Prussian military, thought to be at the time the mightiest land army in the world, he was a person first admired by tsar Alexander but would later be branded as a tyrant and an enemy of the orthodox faith by the same man.

Not the mention the countless lives lost, the destruction of Moscow as a consequence of Russia’s scorched earth policy, and the invasion of Spain who was at the time an ally of France.

But above anything else he was a man that completely disrupted the balance of power in Europe. He would endanger the hegemony of the British empire up to that time. And while he was alive there was always a possibility that he would to do so again.

But, on closer inspection, it isn’t quite as simple as it seems, and a more nuanced approach is necessary.


00:00 Intro
01:09 Factual background
03:45 Why didn't they kill him?
06:00 Why was Napoleon loved?



Reading material:
- Napoleon, A Life by Andrew Roberts
- Price, Munro. Napoleon: The End of Glory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Dwyer, Philip G. Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013
- Woloch, Isser. Napoleon and His Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.

Relevant Wikipedia articles
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fontainebleau_(1814)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdication_of_Napoleon,_1815
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Days
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebhard_Leberecht_von_Bl%C3%BCcher


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