Western Civilization II / Unit 8 WC2 0721 short lesson, about 20 seconds
St. Helena, the Myth, and What Napoleon Left
Captions available
The idea
Exiled to St. Helena, he dictated memoirs claiming everything was for France and the Revolution, and died in eighteen twenty-one. He left a taste for legal equality, a rational code, a weakened nobility, and fifty years of European fear of another French invasion.
In practice
The myth: romantic hero, modern Caesar, France's greatest hour.
Where people slip
The memoirs are self-portrait, the anchor says.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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