Subject: AH Challenge: Napoleon Wins Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 11:15:58 -0500 From: Carlos Th Organization: - Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if The following challenge will consist in having Napoleon Bonaparte to secure France and, at least, Spain until his natural death not prior 1825. The POD should be after the invasion of Spain, and there is no restriction on weather Napoleon hold the other controled territories or succeeded in other adventures, as longer as he, with his brother apointed as king, rules Spain from 1809 to 1825. -- Carlos Th Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Napoleon Wins Date: 7 Sep 2001 02:48:25 -0700 From: Lovell-Smith@Xtra.co.nz (Tim) Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 Carlos Th wrote in message news:<3B97A13E.5FC8BFA4@my-deja.com>... > The following challenge will consist in having Napoleon Bonaparte to > secure France and, at least, Spain until his natural death not prior > 1825. > > The POD should be after the invasion of Spain, and there is no > restriction on weather Napoleon hold the other controled territories or > succeeded in other adventures, as longer as he, with his brother > apointed as king, rules Spain from 1809 to 1825. a. Decide not to invade Russia, and that holding Spain and keeping Frere Joseph on the throne is a priority. Send lrge fraction of the Grande Armee into Spain - (NB plug for Joseph - he was not a bad ruler and an improvement on Nap in some ways - rather like Maximilliian in Mexico - just completely out his depth in dealing with a population who did not want him). b. If a showdown with Russia comes anyway, go for St Petersburg, hope that the Tsar is silly enough to stay there to surrender. If not stay there - you can supply armee by sea - but resist the temptation to chase him down to Moscow. Let the Russians come to you. Problem is that the Spanish will not go away - after driving Wellington out you're probably going to have to let Joseph go and find a puppet suitable to Spanish tastes - your marriage connections to Austria could possibly help. They do have supply of princelings... Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Napoleon Wins Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 15:04:04 -0500 From: Carlos Th Organization: - Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 , 2 Tim wrote: > a. Decide not to invade Russia, and that holding Spain and keeping > Frere Joseph on the throne is a priority. Send lrge fraction of the > Grande Armee into Spain - (NB plug for Joseph - he was not a bad ruler > and an improvement on Nap in some ways - rather like Maximilliian in > Mexico - just completely out his depth in dealing with a population > who did not want him). Well, probably the best priority Spain could give Napoleon would be the Americas. The problem is that keeping Spain, he is pushing the Spanish colonies in the Americas to declare their independence. How would Napoleon deal with Italy, Asutria and the German states in this timeline? > b. If a showdown with Russia comes anyway, go for St Petersburg, hope > that the Tsar is silly enough to stay there to surrender. If not stay > there - you can supply armee by sea - but resist the temptation to > chase him down to Moscow. Let the Russians come to you. In other words: don't invade Russia. I got it? > Problem is that the Spanish will not go away - after driving > Wellington out you're probably going to have to let Joseph go and find > a puppet suitable to Spanish tastes - your marriage connections to > Austria could possibly help. They do have supply of princelings... Nice. -- Carlos Th