[ISHMap-List] Did Napoleon lose to Wellington because of a bad map?

[Matthew Edney]

Dear All:

This just came across the transom …

	http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11144216/Map-error-hastened-Napoleons-Waterloo-defeat.html

The argument is that Napoleon used a printed map derived from a manuscript map, and both were wrong, so that Napoleon misplaced his artillery.

I don't know enough about the events of the battle, but I'm pretty sure that the French were not printing battle maps at this point . . . does anyone have a better and non-journalistic account?

Thanks

Matthew


---------------------

Matthew Edney

Osher Professor in the History of Cartography (USM)

Director, History of Cartography Project (UW)

See http://www.maphistorydirectory.org/index.php/User:Edney.Matthew




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