For Freedom or For France?: Napoleon and Poland Part II

Welcome to Part IIFew individuals have had such an impact on Europeanhistorymore than Napolean Bonaparte. And for the Pole we just met through his200 yearold words, it wasn’t always for their personal best. The image of thedeterminedgaze in the diminutive Corsican, a hand regally tucked into thebreast of hisshirt is iconic to say the least. And where history leaves off,pop culturepicks up. Often parodied, instantly recognizable, impossible toduplicate:Napoleon, a name synonymous with ambition and military genius, yet handin handwith authoritarianism and a cult of personality. For Poles, the mark Napoleon left on theirhistory has beenone tinged with the standards of mythology and disappointment thatwe’ve come toknow all too well from our history. Inspired with the promise ofa reestablishednation after the disaster of the partitions, Poles looked atNapolean’s rise inthe chaos of the French Revolution as an opportunity. One toestablish freedomin defiance of the old order of autocracy which had seen themsubjugated bytheir imperial neighbors. Instead, a group of them foundthemselves on the otherside of the world fighting for Napoleon’s colonialambitions in Haiti.  Today we hear from Historian and prolific authorJonathanNorth, who has studied a great deal about Poles during the NapoleonicEra andhis book “War of Lost Hope: Polish accounts of the NapoleonicExpedition toSaint Dominque, 1801-1804” provides a gripping window into theexperiences ofthese Poles. For more on Jonathan North, visit his website: ⁠https://www.jpnorth.co.uk/ ⁠ ChopinPieces Courtesy of classicals.deChopin- Grande Valse Brillante & Nocturne Op. 15 no. 1in F major,Recorded, produced, andreleased to the public by: The MusopenKickstarter Project - Set Chopin Free ⁠https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Musopen/set-chopin-free⁠CreativeCommons - Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal⁠CCPDM 1.0⁠ Other sounds and music courtesy of freesounds.comVOC_220925-2129-2_FR_FrenchNationalAnthem.wav bykevp888 --https://freesound.org/s/654004/ -- License: Attribution 4.0Music: “[Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major - 1.Movement - BWV1042]” by Gregor Quendel / Classicals.de  Source: ⁠https://www.classicals.de⁠