Napoleonic Wars are overrated in memory. The lasting cost and reshaped Europe came from reforms and nationalism, not one man's glory.
Napoleon welded Europe into modern states and gave us the Civil Code we live by. World War I was brutal, but the Napoleonic reforms laid the framework of today, darling.
Conquest harms the many; Napoleon reshaped Europe, not merely for one man's glory. World War I showed that mass longing for liberty outlives crowns.
I agree. The real reshaping came from science and universal electricity linking Europe, not a single man's glory.
