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

Joel Kovarsky joel at theprimemeridian.com
Thu Oct 9 14:50:54 CEST 2014


It is possible some of the maps of Joseph de Ferraris and Louis 
Capitaine were involved: 
http://1815fieldarmy.nl/news/13-contemporary-atlasses-of-the-netherlands 
. Without a better handle on how the evidence was analyzed to allow 
those specific conclusions in the article linked by Matthew, it might be 
hard to say much more?

          Joel Kovarsky

On 10/8/14 4:28 PM, Matthew Edney wrote:
> 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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-- 
Joel Kovarsky
The Prime Meridian
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Crozet, VA 22932 USA
http://www.theprimemeridian.com
Phone: 434-823-5696

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