Fifty-second episode: The mirage of the decisive Napoleonic battle. Fourth and final episode in a series on the flaws of the Napoleonic war system. In this series, as we have seen, the military tool of the First Empire suffered from limitations external to the battles themselves, gradually eroding its tactical and strategic skills. But how were the battles themselves thought out and researched at that time? The opportunity to explore the intellectual origin of the concept of decisive battle in the Napoleonic era to understand how this same concept eclipsed many other military, political, social or economic factors to finally stifle military thought, to the point of leaving us with a legacy of historiographical difficulty that it is essential for us to address. Member channel of the Hérodote Label https://label-herodote.com/ Sources: 1-Hervé drévillon, Penser et écrire la guerre, Contre Clausewitz, Paris, 2021 2-Histoire militaire de la France Tome 1, dir Hervé Drévillon and Olivier Wieviorka, Paris, 2018 3-Histoire de la France contemporaine, L'Empire des Français, Lignereux Aurélien, Paris, 2012 4-Paul L. Dawson, Battle for Paris 1815 The Untold Story of the Fighting after Waterloo, Barnsley, 2019 5- Charles J. Esdaile, Napoleon, France and Waterloo The Eagle Rejected, Barnsley, 2016 6-John Hussey and Mungo Melvin, Waterloo The Campaign of 1815, Volume 2 From Waterloo to the Restoration of Peace in Europe, barnsley, 2017 7-Lucien Poirier, Les voies de la stratégie, Guibert (1743-1790), Paris, 1977 8-Cénat Jean-Philippe. From siege warfare to mobile warfare: a logistical revolution at the time of the Revolution and the Empire? In: Historical Annals of the French Revolution, No. 348, 2007. War(s), Society(s), Memory. pp. 101-115 9-Bruno Colson, General Rogniat, engineer and critic of Napoleon, Paris, 2006 10-Jérémie Benoît, Marengo: A political victory, Paris/Rueil-Malmaison, 2000 11-Bertaud, Jean-Paul. “Napoleon journalist: the bulletins of glory”, Le Temps des médias, vol. 4, no. 1, 2005, pp. 10-21 12-Marie-Pierre Rey, The terrible tragedy. A new history of the Russian campaign, Paris, Flammarion, January 25, 2012 13-Dominic Lieven, Russia against Napoleon. The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814, London, 2009 contemporary sources: Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, Count of Guibert, General Essay on Tactics, preceded by a speech on the current state of politics and military science in Europe: with the plan of a work entitled: Political and Military France, London, 1772 Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, Count of Guibert, Defense of the Modern War System, or Complete Refutation of the System of M. de M…D…, Paris, 1779 Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, Count of Guibert, On the Public Force Considered in All Its Reports, Paris, 1790 Lazare Carnot, General System of Military Operations for the Next Campaign, Paris, 1794 Mesnil-Durand, Collection of Various Pieces and Memoirs to Complete the Instruction of the Great Matter of Tactics and to Give the Final Explanations on the Proposed French Order. Paris, 1780 Alexis Monteil, History of the French from various states to the last five centuries, Paris, 1828-1844 Notes: -Out of 630 deputies, there are 40 Jacobin republicans (red), 80 Bonapartists (blue) and 510 liberals (yellow, it is a heterogeneous camp composed of revolutionaries and moderates). The royalists abstained from this election, but they are making themselves known through the municipal elections... -I forgot the remarks I had to make....they may come back / surlechampdebataille / surlechampfr To support the channel financially: https://www.helloasso.com/association... Original credits music composed by Julien Théron and remixed by Clément BOTZ / Symphony Blacksmith. Logo designed by Camille Sanchez. 0:00 Introduction-Generic 1:11 Problem 3:03 Origin of the concept of decisive battle 3:59 Guibert's thought 6:23 Consequences on the form of the army 8:38 From theory to practice 9:40 Carnot's mass war 12:41 Evolution of practice 14:15 The decisive battle as a necessity 15:11 Battles that hide the campaigns 16:29 The example of Marengo 16:57 Other examples 17:46 A critique of the battle 19:21 A concept that turns against the Empire 21:18 The example of the Russian campaign 22:07 A rise to extremes 24:07 The military problem that was the decisive battle 25:05 The narrative problem of the battle 25:45 Historiographical consequence 26:41 The example of Waterloo 30:02 Conclusion 31:07 Generic