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The more I learn about Europe at the turn of the 19th Century and the Napoleonic Wars, the more I come to think this man did more to shape modern geopolitics than any other human being. You look at relations between England and France before him, they were at war more often than not, but after 1815, nothing. Not a single Anglo-French war. Centuries of invasions and fighting between France and England coincidentally ended with the final defeat of Napoleon.
As if the unprecedented Anglo-French axis were not enough, he brought about the end of the interminable Holy Roman Empire and also paved the way for the ascendancy of Prussia and final unification of Germany, creating a permanent Germany super-state whose influence I don't think I have to elaborate on.
And I'm still very far from reading everything about him, all the ways he changed history forever. There seems to be no end to the history this man has created in the short time he ruled as Emperor of the French. How can one man shape destiny so blithely?
