200 Centenary Of The Battle Of Waterloo.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/battle-of-waterloo/11676475/The-Battle-of-Waterloo-as-it-happened-on-June-18-1815-live.html

Today marks the 200 centenary of the Battle of Waterloo.

This Telegraph time line of the battle, makes for interesting reading, although one has to scroll down, so as to read from the beginning of the battle.

I wonder how it is being commemorated in France?

[Mamyalynne]

I am not sure if anything has changed since this report in May - though to be fair I haven't really looked.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11621992/France-accused-of-snubbing-Battle-of-Waterloo-bicentenary-commemoration.html

[Svejk]

The Beeb reckoned this morning that Bony tried to create an EU and because we didn't support him it led to WW1 and WW2. They're certainly earning those EU bribes they're receiving.

[jourdain2]

I livened up Lidl's today when I was checking the date on a packet of meat and I exclaimed ( well, actually I shouted aloud) "Oh! June 18th, it's Waterloo day!" A lot of nearby shoppers were amused - Mr. J2 is (fortunately) used to me!

I don't think the French notice it really. They issued stamps a couple of years ago to commemorate an incredibly famous victory in battle. I had to look it up. It was in Spain and they outnumbered the enemy by 2 to 1. It looked pretty good though.

This last sentence mostly sums up the French in my experience - much though I love a lot of them. :)

[stuey]

And 3 days ago it was the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta.

[jourdain2]

Quite a week, stuey.

[jim360]

"The Beeb reckoned this morning that Bony tried to create an EU and because we didn't support him it led to WW1 and WW2. They're certainly earning those EU bribes they're receiving."

Hmm... I'm half reminded of the exam question from 1066 And All That: "Was Julius Caesar directly responsible for the French Revolution?"

[stuey]

If, jourdain2, you had been in the wine section of your store on that day and yelled out "Magna Carta", people might have wondered if you had discovered a rare vintage:)

[Buenchico]

It's interesting that many sources refer to Napoleon 'dividing' Europe, when his aim was to unite it. He was a moderniser who brought in better laws in many of the lands that he conquered and we'd probably be far better off today if we'd lost the Battle of Waterloo. (I've used 'we' very loosely there because there weren't that many British troops there anyway; only just over a thirds of Wellington's troops were British, with a high proportion of those men coming from Ireland).

The French seem not to like being reminded of Waterloo though ;-)
http://www.thelocal.fr/20150312/france-wins-battle-of-waterloo-coin

[stuey]

Chris, I guess that a uniter is a much more peaceful term that a conqueror:)

[Buenchico]

The British and the French both sought to 'unite' Canada, Stuey ;-)

[stuey]

Yes, but the British fortunately conquered; however, unfortunately they left some French behind:)

[Buenchico]

I'm guessing that you don't live in Montreal, Stuey ;-)

[stuey]

No: the Toronto area. Anyway nice talking to you; I'm of to the bar now...Cheers.

[jourdain2]

My ex-husband (retired) and his, Engineer, wife live in Toronto. Rather akin to my speaking to an American lady when I was in California - she had a friend lived in Brussels, so that was pretty near England wasn't it?!

[Colmc54]

Napoleon was a psychopath. The BBC tried to re-invent him in it's recent series as part of it's own pan-European/global policy of expansionism.

The reason there wasn't more coverage of the 200th centenary of Waterloo is political not historic. The BBC and others are in the process of editing and manipulating history.

There might have been more had not the BBC managed to get the broadcast rights for the Women's Football World Cup. I wonder if they would have allocated so much time to an effort to make it as appealing to their viewers on just about the entirety of their News (Metropolitan Guardian subsidiary) Channels if the competition had been broadcast solely by ITV or Sky!

Unless you hadn't noticed already, when you switch on your TV you are being brainwashed both by what you are allowed to see and increasingly by what you are not.

I increasingly watch the Japanese (HD too) News channel and occasionally the Russian one and even Al Jazeera TV in an attempt to stop them from trying to manipulate the way I think.

[Baldric]

200th anniversary surely not Centenary ??

[Colmc54]

Correct but I was being polite to the original poster. Pedantry springs to mind.

[Baldric]

There's a heck of a difference between 200 and 20,000 years,

Carelessness sprang to my mind!

[Colmc54]

l think we have to see this aberratrion in a box. Within we see a vulnerable people rally round the poignant flags of a raving psychopath who I would like to think about the whole thing in a temporal dead end while noting the huge loss of human life involved.

Science is now pretty clued up about identifying psychopaths like Napoleon. The problem is they are already in power!