Napoleon and the Navy or the History of a Misunderstanding
Type de matériel :
42
The French navy had had barely enough time to recover from the (self-inflicted) setbacks of the Revolution, before it received two knockout blows, one at the Nile (Aboukir) and the other at Trafalgar. And Napoleon lacked the very things he needed to be able to create an effective navy, namely, time (at least ten years), money, an new officer class, simple sailors, workmen and, above all, peace. The Emperor also lacked patience, method, and an interest in innovation and new technology. The absence of a navy was to force France back into a land-centered trope from which it was not to escape for another fifty years. The British had clearly understood this when they imposed a reduced navy upon the returning Bourbons.
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