00:00Imagine if the world's most famous short man was actually taller than the average person
00:04walking around today.
00:05It sounds like a total lie, but history has a funny way of terming a simple misunderstanding
00:09into a global legend.
00:10So is it actually true that Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short?
00:14The short answer is a big fat no.
00:16If we look at the real numbers, Napoleon stood about 5 feet 7 inches tall in modern life.
00:20You might be thinking did not everyone say that he was 5 foot 2?
00:24Well, that leads us to our first big question, why was there such a huge confusion over his
00:29height?
00:29The answer comes down to a simple math error between the French and the British.
00:33Back in the early 1800s, an inch was not the same ever well.
00:36A French inch was actually longer than a British one.
00:39When Napoleon died and had his autopsy, the French doctor reported his height as 5 feet
00:432 inches and 4 lines in French units.
00:45When that number reached the English-speaking world, people just assumed it mean 5 foot 2
00:49in British inches, which would be very short.
00:51But when you do the conversion correctly, that 5 foot 2 in French units actually becomes a
00:55very respectable 5 foot 7.
00:57This brings us to the next question, how did he compare to other people living back then?
01:02In the early 19th century, the average Frenchman was only about 5 feet 4 or 5 feet 5 inches tall.
01:07So Napoleon was not just average, he was actually slightly taller than the typical man of his
01:12time.
01:12If he was actually taller than ever, why did everyone who saw him in person think he looked
01:16so smart?
01:17This happened because of a clever psychological trick involving his bodyguards.
01:21Napoleon was almost always surrounded by his interior guard, also known as Old Guard.
01:25To get into his original soldiers had to be at least 5 foot 10 or even taller.
01:29And they wore massive hair skinheads that made them look like giants.
01:32When you spend your whole day standing next to 6 foot 4 soldiers in tall hats, you are going
01:36to look short to everyone watching, even if you are actually 5 foot 7.
01:40Another big question people ask is, what about his famous nickname, The Little Corporal?
01:44Doesn't that prove he was skinny?
01:46Actually the nickname, The Leap-footed Corporal was a term of Indian man, used by his robes
01:50because he was so young when he started winning battles, and because he liked to get down in
01:54the trenches with them.
01:54It was about his comradeship and his age, not his physical structure.
01:58So if it was not the French who really started the rumour that he was a thin man, you can
02:02blame his biggest enemies, the British.
02:04The famous British cartoon named James Gallery created a character called Little Bonin.
02:08He drew Napoleon as a teeny angry man beating a head that was way too big for him just to
02:12mock his eluge conditions.
02:13The cartoons were so popular and so funny that people eventually started believing the joke
02:18was real life.
02:18Finally does the Napoleon complex even exist if the man himself was not short?
02:22Scientists and psychologists use their term to describe short men who act aggressively
02:25to make up for their height.
02:27But ironically, the term was not even invented until about 100 years after Napoleon died.
02:31And modern studies have eventually found that shorter men are not necessarily more aggressive
02:35than tall men anyway.
02:36So the next time someone tells you Napoleon was a teeny guy with a short temper, you can
02:40tell them that they have been tricked by a 200-year-old match error and some very effective
02:44British propaganda.
02:53This is a slave to the same.
02:55The American reaction was not counted by a 200-year-old match error.
02:58Let's see.
02:58Let's see.
02:59Let's see.
02:59Let's see.
03:00Let's see.
03:01Let's see.
03:03Let's see.
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