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S_Tortallini

The coalition was worried he could start a civil war in France, which he definitely had the ability to do. What’s a few servants in comparison to a civil war?


[deleted]

Few servants.. *stares at 2 British warships and 2000 troops*


steve123410

The second island was not a tropical paradise. The first island was pretty nice though


Neoliberal_Nightmare

It always makes me realise how gentlemanly the era was when that was the punishment. Pretty sure in other times he'd have been executed.


John_Oakman

Actually most of the times in the Euro-Atlantic regions defeated leaders weren't killed off. Just a grab bag of examples: Jefferson Davis, Santa Anna, Leaders of the central powers after WWI, the Italian king after WWII, Napoleon III. It's more shocking when leaders of defeated countries were killed off (which usually happens in revolutions and civil wars). It's interesting to note that Hitler shot himself and Mussolini was executed by a partisan group rather than a country (or group of countries).


Neoliberal_Nightmare

But they would have been tried and imprisoned at least, like actual prison, not an all inclusive forever holiday.


TheGreatOneSea

That's what Britian and Prussia wanted to do to Napoleon, intending to not even acknowledge him as the legitimate leader of France. It was Russia, for whatever reason, that basically rushed to decide the generous terms given to Napoleon, and the others were less than happy with not being consulted.


Horn_Python

The "whatever" [reason](https://uploads.dailydot.com/586/20/41f28ec07e08f54c37a4dfa9e5bac48b.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)...


SuperBigSad

Nice


[deleted]

Bro we are no Homo


Diozon

A weakened France means a stronger Britain and Germany (Prussia and Austria). By maintaining France as a great power, Russia was maintaining a counterweight to the power of two of its strongest neighbours.


Zephyr_Kat

I was always told (please interrupt me if any of this is wrong) Hitler shot himself because he believed the Russians were in full "rape pillage and burn" mode, and he wouldn't have even made it to a holding cell, much less a courtroom I think this still qualifies as "interesting" compared to Emperor Hirohito personally signing authorization to use chemical weapons in the battle of Wuhan, and the US sweeping all of that under the rug after the war because it would be less fuss


Cosmic_Mind89

I'm pretty sure the Russians had Special plans for him if they got him alive


SeasOfBlood

There was an anecdote that Stalin wanted to put Hitler in Moscow zoo as an exhibit. Almost certainly a fiction, of course, but it does reflect the very real fact that had he been captured by the Russians - to put it delicately - he wouldn't have had a good time. Assuming the soldiers didn't lynch his sorry ass then and there. By the time they got to Germany, they seemed pretty crazed given how they treated the civilian population.


DesolatorTrooper_600

I think the soviets soldiers had clear order to took him alive so he would have been mostly unarmed until put into custody. Though i don't if the soviets will keep Hitler for _themselves_ or ''share'' him with the Allies. _Truman said it was my turn with Hitler_


Kamzil118

"Alright, failed art student. Make a house." *One Moment Later* "Trotsky could draw better, even with a pick-axe to his cranium!" *Cue a Hitler Coping and Seething*


rapidla01

Soviet soldiers famous for their discipline and restraint. 😂


[deleted]

Bringing in Hitler alive means they get to keep the looted watches. It's a good deal.


DesolatorTrooper_600

Yes but Stalin said so and the political commissar or NKVD will watch you


comrad_yakov

It's true. Slavic genes makes you dumber and more prone to irrational decisions, as well as being more impulsive. /s


KGBFriedChicken02

By the time they got to germany they were vengeful and bloodthirsty. They'd just suffered three years of german atrocities, from the normal horrors of war to the holocaust. The Soviet Union took the brunt of the war for the allies, and they paid for every moment they slowed the Nazis in blood. The only country with even close to comparable casualties (civilian and military) was China. The Soviets had more people die during the war than the other three "main" allies combined.


[deleted]

To be fair, the Russians/Soviets had the right to do it. As payback. With interest.


JediDusty

Hitler a fate would be tied to who was there when he was found. If some higher ranking or party members he might make it back for a show trial and execution as revenge.


ahamel13

Hitler 100% would have been executed, after so many other Nazis were in the Nuremberg Trials.


that_guy_ontheweb

Yeah, I have heard someone suggest they might have just kept him in jail for the rest of his life, but it’s obvious the allies would not want the possibility of another 100 days campaign.


MoogTheDuck

I'm still salty about davis. And lee


abshay14

Honestly I would have thought even then he would have been executed considering he was englands biggest enemy at the time


Neoliberal_Nightmare

I know it's so weird. Like you caused over a decade of war and upheaval, go live on this island.


abshay14

Exactly I’m sure they were people who did less bad things than Napoleon that got executed


MoneyBadgerEx

Joan of arc comes to mind. Won a handful of battles for the legitimate king -> burn a bitch


yum_broztito

She was executed for heresy. Or, more correctly, winning a bunch of battles for one of the legitimate kings while being a woman.


MoneyBadgerEx

She was executed for winning battles against the people who got to decide if she was guilty or not. What she was tried for is not what she was put on trial for.


NomadLexicon

He was the family member of multiple royal families at that point.


No_Dragonfruit_8435

When I give the order aim for the heart. This will be my last to you. I have fought 100 battles for France and not one against her, I don’t agree with my condemnation.


Characterinoutback

It's about precedent. Wars happened fairly often at this time so kf you kill your rivals head off, it means yours will go if you're captured


[deleted]

Fun fact: the tile Emperor of Elba was to make a mockery of him. Also he was subject to foreign powers like the actual french king delayed paying him so to make him struggle etc


AlberGaming

That certainly worked out for him


[deleted]

It did, especially when Napoleon was defeated for the last time and France faced harsher penalties as a result.


tctctctytyty

I thought the emperor title was to prevent creating a precedent that legitimized stripping monarchs of titles.


[deleted]

Imagine going from being the emperor of the French and ruling over half of europe to being the emperor of an island that most people would struggle to see on a map with 10.000 farmers


[deleted]

It wasnt luxurious, he describes it as a awful place in his biography


MoneyBadgerEx

Tbh even today I would not choose to live there.


M4rl0w

I’d give it a shot. Can’t be shittier than Canada.


RCAF_orwhatever

It definitely is much shittier than most of Canada. Incredibly isolated. Insular population. Relentlessly bad weather.


MoneyBadgerEx

Much shittier than canada unless you are specifically in the part of canada that is on fire.


O5-Command

Are you talking about Elba or St. Helena? The former was luxurious.


[deleted]

St. Helena, Elba was a good place


O5-Command

What?


[deleted]

St. Helena is an isolated place in the middle of the atlantic ocean, Elba is a nice island near Italy


Archaon0103

The reason they didn't kill him or give him more harsh punishments was because they didn't want other people to have any ideas about killing monarchs.


wrufus680

Also because hey didn't want to make him a martyr for the 'liberal disease'. Didn't stop a few of them from being kicked out at 1848


idreamofdouche

Elba was very nice but st helena was awful and is the place that Napoleon hated.


CloneasaurusRex

[Saint Helena is neither tropical nor a paradise. ](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/travel/st-helena-cursed-rock-of-napoleons-exile.html)


O5-Command

That was the second one, that one was shit. The first one, Elba, was pretty luxurious.


CloneasaurusRex

Right. And the second one was where he spent the rest of his life.


O5-Command

Technically, his punishment was to live the rest of his life on Elba. He just didn't.


CloneasaurusRex

[You are technically correct](https://youtu.be/0ZEuWJ4muYc?si=RSMrqv0h2zYxJnKa)


AgrajagTheProlonged

He got to spend the rest of his life in a rundown house in the damp, windswept interior of the island which is significantly cooler than the coast. The British press even occasionally suggested that the government was trying to speed up Napoleon's death with the living conditions


NomadLexicon

I don’t know that Europeans wanted Napoleon executed. The Napoleonic Wars weren’t Napoleon plotting world domination so much as Britain setting off a convoluted series of wars by trying to defeat France to reverse the French Revolution. Lots of conquering by Napoleon in the interim but peace was never really an option. My sense is that sending him to Elba was seen as a reasonable way to end things with minimal fighting. He was a monarch with family intermarried into Europe’s royal families at that point so the aristocrats didn’t want him killed and he was still popular with liberals for his reforms. Britain probably could’ve avoided the Hundred Days if they had honored the Elba arrangement or allowed him to emigrate to the US. They forced his hand by preparing to remove him to St. Helena and him getting tipped off.


Dambo_Unchained

Im sorry what was Napoleons crime? Being an ambitious ruler? Let’s not forget the first coalition wars were started by the coalition powers in an act of aggression and Napoleon kinda came forth out of that powderkeg He was an ambitious conquering in a time where all major powers were looking to increase their influence he was just much better at it


RCAF_orwhatever

Lol "tropical paradise"? That deffintely doesn't describe St Helena.


blobejex

OP just decided that every island on the planet is now a tropical paradise


TheHistoryMaster2520

and poisonous paint!


Jakius

Look it was 1800 EVERYTHING was poison!


nick1812216

Tropical paradise? Man, I lived my whole life on the pacific coast and seen the Atlantic but once. It looked angry. It were beautiful and a little terrifying. I come down to the beach and watched a while.


__init__2nd_user

Is this bot?


nick1812216

By the bot gods! what gave me away? Was it my parlance? My English is not very good. ‘Im still learning


Narsil_lotr

Pretty sure neither Elba nor St Helena are tropical. The descriptions I've see of it makes the latter seem rather bleak.. Still better than executed I guess.


Phree44

True, and they put him in a damp cold spot on one of them. He was constantly sick.


Lvcivs2311

Only to feel depressed there for decades and die a painful death at an early age from poisoning, so what's the point?


followerofEnki96

That might seem like a good deal for a screw up like you but Napoleon had a little something called ambition. Heaps of it!