Pick the Next Extra History Series! "The Napoleonic Wars" (Patreon)

It's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next Extra History Series is about!

These four topics were selected from our "The Napoleonic Wars" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.

--- Horatio Nelson ---

On July 25th, 1797 Admiral Horatio Nelson was shot in the arm while leading an assault on a Spanish fort. Thirty minutes after the arm was amputated, he was already on his feet, issuing orders to his crew. This story would make any officer legendary, but it's a relatively minor incident in his storied career. Born into a minor noble family, Nelson made his name via incredible bravery, aggressive tactics and frequently straight-up insubordination. At the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, he disobeyed orders and left his position—but in doing so, captured two larger Spanish vessels in the same boarding action. From the Battle of the Nile to the bombardment of Copenhagen, he would shape the war (even as he scandalized London with an open affair). But it would be at Trafalgar that he would face his greatest challenge, and become the Royal Navy's most beloved martyr.

--- Napoleon in Egypt ---

In 1798, Napoleon crossed the Mediterranean with his Armée d'Orient with the stated mission of securing French trade interests. That... wasn't what he was doing, though. His campaign in Egypt and Syria was an ambitious gambit to threaten British power in India and knock them out of the war. Yet not all his goals were military—with the armies came scientists, ethnographers, writers and artists, who made a study of the region even as he tried to conquer it. Napoleon also brought new Enlightenment ideas about "instructing" and "civilizing" the Ottoman subjects, in a campaign that's been called the first act of modern colonialism. The expedition would end in failure—with Napoleon ordering massacres, and insisting his own ill soldiers be overdosed on opium when they slowed his retreat—but he would still return to France to find a crown waiting for him.

--- Waterloo: A Hundred Days ---

Napoleon has escaped from exile, and is again master of France. With coalition armies largely disbanded, believing the threat over, only the British Army under the Duke of Wellington and Prussian Field Marshal von Blücher are ready to accept battle. But Wellington has lost most of his veteran troops to the War of 1812, and the allied forces are separated. Napoleon knows he has one chance to stay both free and in power—he must separate and defeat these coalition armies, knocking Prussia out of the war and pushing the British to the sea. But while he wins the initial engagements, the armies will converge near a little-known village called Waterloo. There, Napoleon will batter the British in attack after attack, hoping to break them before the Prussians can arrive to reinforce. Join us for a series on one of the greatest battles ever fought—exploring the heroism, the horror, and the drama of what has come to be known as a decisive victory, but which Wellington admitted was, "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life."

If you want something more famous than the Italian Campaign, try this one:

--- Napoleon's Invasion of Russia: The Grand Disaster ---

In June of 1812, Napoleon's Grand Armée crossed the border into Russia, hoping to force the empire to reenter his blockade of the United Kingdom. Napoleon's record of victory was unbroken, his armies seemingly invincible, and he entered with 450,000 men—one of the largest armies ever assembled to that point. Yet when his Grand Armée struggled back to France six months later, only one in four of his soldiers who had crossed into Russia returned alive. Join us for one of the most costly military campaigns in history, which in mere months would kill a million people and ravage the countryside, as Russian generals used attrition tactics to break one of the greatest armies ever assembled. From the bloody fields of Borodino to the fire-gutted ruins of Moscow, and all along the snowbound retreat, we'll see a defeat so infamous it not only changed the course of a war, it became a shorthand for military disaster.

Current Schedule:

Pearl Harbor airs 11/26 --> Frederick the Great --> John Brown: The Army of the Lord --> Your Vote!

***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 5:00 PM PT on Sunday the 20th. You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. ***