Historians Discover Real Reason for Napoleonic Wars

For the past two centuries, scholars have ferociously argued over the reason for the Napoleonic Wars. Some paint Napoleon as an egotistical maniac who would stop at nothing to expand his empire, while others say he was a victim of the established European monarchies, who believed Bonaparte threatened the status quo. No longer will the great debate rage because two historians, Francois Roseau and Charles Jenkins, have finally gotten to the bottom of the Napoleonic Wars: the metric system. Yes, a measuring system caused one of the bloodiest eras in world history.

“The French Revolution did alarm the European monarchies, so much so that the monarchs were shaking more than those annoying small dogs,” Roseau admitted in Jenkins and his academic article in the reputable History for Historians magazine.  “And Napoleon’s rise to power concerned the monarchs of Europe, but what enraged them was Bonaparte’s introduction of the metric system.”

The historians have the documents to back up their claim. Roseau and Jenkins discovered a series of letters between King George III of Great Britain and Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire, who would later become Francis I of the Austrian Empire. In these letters, the monarchs complain that Napoleon first “dared to crown himself emperor, placing the crown upon himself” and then sought “to impose a measuring system on the entirety of Europe.”

But the evidence does not stop there. Roseau and Jenkins have also uncovered letters Napoleon sent to various people. In these letters, Napoleon tells people that the metric system would “bring standardization,” “enhance scientific progress” and that “all of Europe” would use it.

Despite this evidence, not all Napoleonic War historians support Roseau and Jenkins’ findings. Harry Hobble, a British historian specializing in all things Napoleon, has written an article in History for Historians arguing against their claim. In it, Hobble says it is “ludicrous” to suggest “the metric system was the driving factor behind the Napoleonic Wars.”

“It’s not ludicrous,” Jenkins defended himself to this credible newspaper. “Each peace treaty Napoleon signed, where he was the victor, involved Bonaparte giving the defeated party a meter stick.”

That settles it, and there’s no need to debate any further. The metric system caused the Napoleonic Wars and is responsible for the millions of lives lost during the wars. Therefore, the imperial system is vastly superior to the metric system, and the world should start using the peaceful imperial system instead of the war-causing metric system.