In this episode, Ed opens the book on one of history's most iconic military leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon is most famous for his wars that were so uniquely titled that they became known as the "Napoleonic Wars." For most of his reign, it was wondered if Napoleon could ever be defeated!

And was he gloriously defeated!

In part 1 of a 2 part series, Ed looks at the rise of Napoleon from his early years struggling to climb the ranks in French schools as a kid who was Italian to his massive victory against the British at Toulon. We get to see what separated Napoleon from the generations of ineffective leaders who did nothing more than eat fancy foods and sink France into crippling debt. Eventually, Napoleon would crown himself the emperor of France, and quickly took over most of eastern Europe including Austria, Prussia, Italy, and last but not least, Russia

In part 1 Napoleon quickly established himself as a person who can get stuff done, but more effectively as a military visionary who seemed undefeatable in battle. Then in part 2 his beef with Britain involved his beef with Russia and Napoleon raised the largest army in Europe's history and vowed to put Russia in its place once and for all in what would become one of the greatest dumpster fires in history.

In part 2, we dive into the surprisingly well thought out invasion of Russia. Many falsely assume that Napoleon threw a temper tantrum at finding out that Russia was secretly trading with Britain (Napoleon wanted all of Europe to really stick it to Britain and not trade with them with his "Continental System," but Russia was in dire straights and they figured... who cares). Many think Napoleon was petulant and tyrannical, but in reality he was fairly methodical and calculated. However, it will be tough to maintain those opinions after listening to this episode. 

After spending two years planning, recruiting, organizing, and negotiating, Napoleon set out with on of the largest armies in all of human history called the Grande Armee, with a staggering 650,000 men involving France, Austria, Prussia and a few other small countries. However, after six months, only about 100,000 made it back with only 20,000 of that were able to fight. This is considered one of the worst military campaigns in history, the likes of which would not be seen until World War I and World War II. Take a listen and see just what in the world caused such a brilliant military mind of the 19th century look like a military academy drop out in what would become Napoleon's Greatest Blunder.