Very demure, very mindful: Napoleon’s coronation as French Emperor came only 15 years after the French overthrew their last autocratic ruler. Source: Workshop of François Gérard / Public Domain.

Right Man, Right Place, Right Time: The Rise of Napoleon

In 1799 France changed forever. After a decade of rumbling discontent regarding the concentration of wealth towards the powerful and the exploitation of the masses who were facing widespread starvation, the French rose up and killed everyone in charge, from the King on down. The failure of the ancien regime, the creaking feudal order of

Barely able to hit a city: all the places where the Paris Gun struck, with the black line showing the direction of attack (Catsmeat / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Fire from the Sky: The Terror of the Paris Gun

On the 23rd March 1918 at 7.18 in the morning the city of Paris was rocked by a sudden, unexpected explosion on the Quai de la Seine. The blast came without warning, and many thought the initial explosion to be some kind of accident, a gas leak or something of that kind. However as the