What if~Napoleon never conquered Europe?

The story of Napoleon Bonaparte was one of complexity. The Corsican that came to France and ended the French Revolution and united France and created an Empire that would occupy almost all of Continental Europe, only to see it crumble and was forced into exile. But, what if Napoleon didn't seize power in France and try to conquer Europe, what if France didn't become the power we know it today? But first, a history lesson. Just droll down to the What if category if you just want to read about the Alternate scenario.

## Real History

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the independent island of Corsica. His family was noble and his father has gotten him a scholarship to a very prestigious military academy. Despite him being able to speak French, but he was never fluent in that language, so most of the other Cadets just rejected him, and spent most of his time at the Academy's Library. Very accomplishing of his studies, he was then taken to the *École Militaire*in Paris by 1784 and became the first Corsican to graduate from this military school. From there, in 1785 Napoleon was commissioned as a second Lieutenant of the *La Fère* artillery regiment and served some French military regiments until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, he headed back to his native Corsica where it was in it's won state of political strife, he stayed there until 1793 and headed back to France which was in total chaos. During his participation in the French Revolution, he helped Augistin Robespierre in the Seige of Toulon, he helped capture the city from the British and was promoted to Brigadier General at the age of 24. He also went on to lead the Army of Italy and even led them into the Habsurg Monarchy (modern day Austria) and though he was initially defeated by Archduke Charles, but would get his revenge at the Battle of Tarvis a year later. In 1798, and wanting to strengthen France's Navy to combat the British, he then decided to formulate a campaign for North Africa and the Middle East to establish trade routes and cut off British Supplies, his forces were successful in the first few months of the battle, but as the British sunk a few French ships on the Nile during the Battle of the Nile, this crippled Napoleon's forces and disease compounded this.

As a result. Napoleon high-tailed it out of Egypt and headed back to France, abandoning the other French COs and soldiers.

Upon returning to France, the revolution is all but over. But there were loose ends to tie up, but the Directory couldn't afford to do this, and Napoleon himself became involved in french Politics (which he was many years before). He staged a coup in late 1799 and even became the first Consul of a new French Republic. He has seized Swtizerland and Italy in his first actions in 1800 and even signed a peace treaty with the British 2 years later, but soon would fight them again after the British violated some of those agreements in that treaty.

In late 1804, Napoleon was named the First French Emperor, this has caused anger among other Empires and Replublics (especially Britain), Many rulers in Europe now have one thing on their minds: Eliminate Emperor Napoleon.

Napoleon responded by assembling an army of nearly 200,000 men by 1805, and after a year he defeated the Third Coalition, and as a result the Holy Roman Empire fell and in it's place came the Confederation of the Rhine.

Though, it would only be a few months later where the Fourth Coalition was formed, again Napoleon wins and other nations would form an alliance (albeit uneasy) with France, including Russia.

In 1808, Napoleon tried to Negotiate with the King of Spain about an alliance, and his forces were allowed into Spain, but Napoleon's forces would quickly depose the Spanish King and take over the entire Iberian Penninsula, beginning the *Penninsulan Wars*. Napoleon's brother: Jospeh was made the new king of a Spanish puppet to the French Empire.

The next year, Austria declared war on France once more, and formed the fifth coalition. Because Austria was unprepaired and lacked the necessary support, the coalition would last for only 6 months, but ended in a French victory.

But by the 1810's, Russia would break the deal it has made with France. Though, Napoleon's advisors suggested that he should try to re-negotiate a deal with the Tsars, but Napoleon would dismiss their opinions, and plans for an invasion of Russia. In 1812, Napoleon with an army 450,000 strong created a swath of destruction in the Russian homeland, and captured Moscow by September 14. But the city was basically abandoned, and eventually burned to the ground, this forces Napoleon and his forces to retreat.

During thier retreat, Napoleon and his forces have plunged into the harshest of Russian Winters, this decimated Napoleon's army, only 90,000 of his men made it back to France.

Napoleon's forces and the French Empire are now in a weakened state and the other Empires of Europe now want to seize the opportunity to defeat Napoleon once and for all, and with it a sixth coalition was formed. The fighting went on for a year, until Napoleon was defeated and forced to abdicate the French Throne in 1814, he then was exiled to an island off the coast of Italy called Elba. He stayed there for a few months until he decided to head back to France.

In 1815 Napoleon arrived in France, once there, he dared the soldiers sent to assassinate him to kill him, but they refuse. The soldiers then decide to join Napoleon and helped him retake the Throne of France, ruling for around 110 days.

The rest of the Europe was none too pleased, and a 7th Coalition was formed.

Both forces met at Waterloo where the French army try to make one last stand, Napoleon's army was defeated and Napoleon had to abdicate the throne once again and sent into exile, but this time, it was the British controlled island of Saint Helena off the coast of West Africa.

He send the rest of his life in Saint Helena, alone, and miserable and writing out mis memoirs. He would eventually die at the age of 51 from supposedly Stomach Cancer.

## What if?

Now, here comes the question. What if Napoleon never conquered Europe, what if France enever became a continental power, what would become of Europe?

A lot would change in the history of Europe if Napoleon never came to power in France and conquer most of Europe.

Let's say that Napoleon attempt at coup fails, he is persecuted for his actions and was casted out as a result.

More than likely, the French Revolution would not only continue, but worsen. Napoleon's actions help France rise up from it's revolution and become a power in Europe. It is also possible that France would plunge into a civil war and may never fully recover.

Another thing that will be different is that the Holy Roman Empire would remain in power for at least another half century, and the 1848 revolutions would not take place.

The Habsburg Monarchy wouldn't be very influential in European history either. It wouldn't turn into the Astro-Hungarian Empire. The only reason it did is because Napoleon formed his own Empire.

What also happened after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo is that the European nations made all kinds of agreements to make sure that what has happened in what is now called the *Napoloeonic Era* would not happen again. These agreements would last up until the 20th century (when World War 1 began).

Prussia also wouldn't rise to power in Germany. When Napoleon conquered the Holy Roman Empire, and with the collapse of the Confederation of the Rhine, Prussia swooped in and helped Germany rebuild (during the 1848 German Revolution), Germany also won't see the rise of Otto von Bismark.

France would also not sabotage the Spanish Empire without Napoleon, and with it Napoleon's brother: Joseph wouldn't be the Emperor of Spain. Furthermore, in our reality Napoleon's sabotaging the Spanish Empire only accelerated the Empire's collapse.

Because of this, this wouldn't just change the history of Europe, but also North America. Without Napoleon in this alternate reality, Spain would play a bigger role in the history of North America as it'll hold on to it's territories in America.

Countries such as Mexico wouldn't exist until much later (up until the mid to late 19th century).

This would also greatly effect the history of the United States. In our reality, Spain has given Napoleon the Louisiana Terrtory in 1802, and Napoleon would've had big plans for that territory if it werent for the Haiti Revolution, but because the Haitians claimed Independence and driven out their French occupiers, Napoeon just considered it useless land and gladly gave it to the Americans (Napoleon was also strapped for funds as he was still fighting a war against the British). In this Alternate reality, Spain still holds on to the Louisiana Territory, making America's ambitions to move west much more difficult as the relationship between the USA and Spain was quite bad to begin with. With this, the USA would buy the land little by little or even try to take it by force. With this, the expansion westward would take longer, and that means some states such as Texas, Calfornia, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada would either become states at later times or not at all. This would also effect the time the American Civil War would take place, so it'll take place around 5 to 10 years later than it did in our reality.

Going into the 20th century, the history would also be very different. The 2 World Wars, the wars that would define our modern era wouldn't take place as the German Empire and even Nazi Germany as well as the Soviet Union would probably not exist. The world in the modern era wouldn't just be different but it'll be practically unrecognizable as we would have different nations as well as different histories written.

That is all for this page, don't forget to check out my other wikiws about video games and movies as well as other pages on this wiki, until then this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.