What’s the biggest piece of information missing from the graph? The Russians!
Minard’s visualization presents the campaign as if it’s a natural disaster or act of god. One man’s hubris against nature, with a tragic, inevitable outcome. Russian participation not required.
To pick an example, the dogleg near the beginning of the French retreat is the battle of Maloyaroslavets, where the Russians prevented the French from turning south into warmer weather and unspoiled countryside. The diagram labels the battle, but without other information it’s an arbitrary waypoint.
I’m not arguing the merits of the diagram’s point of view either way, but it’s worth observing that it has one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankey_diagram#/media/File:JIE...
To my mind, the pie chart and the histogram are top of the pops in terms of classic visualization. Not sure where my life would be without histograms (I edit images).
Napoleon was not simply attacking the Tsar. It was the Russian Tsar who claimed to stop anti-monarchy freedom spread in Europe and planned to invade France. The same is true for European Coalitions that had had place before the French-Russian war. Napoleon moved the battles out of France.
The rest information, including troop quantity, is presented in the inaccurate manner.
And if you are going to claim that the rest of the information is inaccurate, you should be specific and explain your position.
When Napoleon did gain power in France? In 1799. So the anti-republican wars started before his actions.
How many anti-French coalitions there were? Eight!
The European rulers were frightened to death about revolution spread in their countries and started the wars against France. The goal of Bourbon Restoration was temporary achieved only in 1814.
Now, the article claims that Russia started the war against France because the Tsar did not want to join the England blockade. Really? :) England had been fighting France for 20 years, blocking each other economically. Russian forces already had had many battles against France before 1812, and the country was in the first Coalition. Here we go, a conventional story where “bloody Napoleon was terrifying the whole Europe”.
The fear of revolution against slavery in some countries were not theoretical. Russia was under peasants mutiny during the Napoleon wars. The Tsar savagely choked the rebellion movements.
The history should be based on facts.
