Thanks for that. I lived there as a boy between 1970 and 1975. It was a truly special place. Saw Longwood, the empty tomb and the Boer cemetery. My father worked at the Castle. We lived at Luffkins Towers. I went to Country Junior School. I don't think I ran up Jacobs Ladder but I may have walked once, can't remember - it was far from where we lived. I remember the gun battery at the top and have a St Helena Rifles cap badge I found there. I never dared to slide down it - shoulders on one banister knees on the other, that was the thing real kids did. Union Castle line was the only way there - 12 passengers on 12 off every month. Everyone at school wanted to be a merchant seaman. Big heap of coal on the wharf and coal lighters from the old coaling station days. We burned coal fires in our house high up in the interior. Truly magical place, especially when you are 5-10 years old. Flax and donkeys. We had two. Squealing when the pig was killed. School friends so poor they had no shoes and no teeth. Glad I lived there. Taught me a lot about life. We were lucky to be ex pat and "rich" but it opened my eyes even so young to poverty and "otherness". My Pop knew Gilbert Martineau, who was the French man there at the time, must be the father of yer man. He wrote some seminal works about Napoleon (we have signed copies) and his exile.
I love History and Geography I'm ashamed that I've never heard about this place thanks alot for giving more depth information,wasn't even born those years 😂😂 🎉Greetings from London
This is what makes social media worth all the nonsense. Thanks for your memories and bringing history current. Living on that island as a kid must have been amazing! ✌🏻
I’m so surprised at how the consensus is that the movie is bad or at least not good, when I myself thought it was at least decent if not erring on the side of good. When Oppenheimer, which I thought was oppositely erring on bad, is so widely talked about as a masterpiece. Not a jab just a thought. But I do agree love the history content!
Thanks Dan, I always wondered about St Helena because I live in Mount Martha just out of Melbourne (Australia) and am surrounded by landmarks such as Balcombe Creek, Helena Street and The Briars homestead. The Briars Mt Martha grazing property was established in the mid-1800s by Alexander Balcombe, son of William Balcombe of St Helena. Alexander was a small boy when Napoleon was on St Helena. The Briars was the original homestead in this area - the rest was bush. Today it’s open to the public and it housed a collection of Napoleon memorabilia that the family had brought from St Helena, at least it did until a lot of it was nicked about 10 years ago and the rest was moved to a proper museum with better security. The thieves “came in through the bathroom window” and stole, among other things, a lock of Napoleon’s hair! Anyhow, it’s been great to see what the real St Helena and the original Briars is actually like.
I spent some time on Ascension Island but didn't have the opportunity to visit St. Helena although I did spend a lot of time with the St. Helenians that lived on Ascension. The Saints, as they are called, were an interesting bunch and pretty likeable on the whole.
Son of a biatch.i hope at least it was taken by a collector and not a seller. Someone who appreciates what they've "nicked" as u Brits are so fond of saying. I saw a similar situation coming here in silicon valley years ago where they had a great display of rare rifles at the Winchester House with practically no real security against someone who wanted dozens of rare guns like myself. Fortunately they got some real security a decade later and lost nothing prior to needing it up.I was surprised to read just a few years ago how little security that European art museums had and the price they paid for that lack of attention.Ditto for the libraries here in the US where people were stealing millions in rare books and manuscripts.
Thank you for sharing this incredible history. I love that you pull people in with Napoleon but then share a complicated and often disturbing past. Please keep telling undertold stories like this!
I climbed Jacob's Ladder years ago during a cruise ship excursion. My legs were sore for days after the climb. Unfortunately, my visit was a brief stopover without seeing Napoleon's house and much of the scenery covered in this video. The video makes up for most of the parts that I missed, especially the information about the liberated African slaves and the Boer cemetery. The island's history is fascinating. I wish that I could have spent more time exploring St. Helena. I randomly came across this historical video and it fills in the gaps of what I missed. It immediately took me back to my all but too-brief St. Helena adventure.
I've always found it fascinating that Napoleonic tactics weren't conquered by man's thoughts but by man's innovation in weaponry. The fifled musket and new ammunition made man change tactics. Napoleon was a genius in militarism, and he knew military victory could unite a country more than any political reforms. Much hasn't changed....
@jacktattis That's why I said the Rifiled Musket and new ammunition changed tactics. AKA...The American Civil War. Both sides, at first, were using Napoleonic tactics, but had to change and by late 1862 field works became popular.
I read this not too long ago but after his defeat at Waterloo Napoleon considered making a run for the United States and even had a French frigate standing by for the attempt. However the Royal Navy had the French harbors blockaded making a run impossible. It's interesting to speculate just what the reaction to Napoleon's arrival here in the US might have been. His brother Joseph Bonaparte had come here earlier and had an estate near Bordentown NJ. He was well-liked in the area as well, a fine neighbor by all accounts.
Without armies following him he was probably an amiable person. Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot and Josef Stalin might have been fine neighbors if they hadn't had nations following them. How fine a neighbor someone is seems like a flawed metric for a person imprisoned after causing the deaths of many thousands or millions of people.
And if building that High Null Fort was a challenge, building the island's airport was just as much of a tough challenge! The airport opened in 2016, but the concept goes further back than that. The first consideration of an airport on St Helena was made in 1943 by the South African Air Force, which undertook a survey on Prosperous Bay Plain, but concluded that, while technically feasible, an airport was not a practical proposition. When the last ocean liner to dock there stopped in 1977, St. Helena was cut off, and the UK stepped in by supplying a hybrid cargo/passenger ship called the RMS St. Helena. But when it became evident the RMS St. Helena needed to be replaced in the 2000s, they knew that it was better to build an airport, so they announced plans for one in 2005. There were two big concerns regarding the airport during its construction, that it was built on the ecologically diverse Prosperous Bay Plain which is an important site for endemic wildlife like the St. Helena plover, and wind shear. Comair was given the contract to fly to St. Helena, and they first tested in April 2016 with a Boeing 737-800, but it had a problematic landing as it landed on the third approach. When coming in to land from the north, it was now apparent that wind shear was going to be a significant issue. To combat this, they decided to have planes approach the airport from the south only to find that this too was problematic. Planes landing there need to land with a tailwind, which makes it quite challenging, on top of the short runway. The first scheduled commercial flight wouldn't take place until October 2017.
It’s good but not the best .. The documentary presented by Michael wood - in the footsteps of Alexander the Great is probably the best documentary ever ..
My Grandfather spent a couple years on Ascencion Island building barracks and myriad other constructions.......he showed us as kids his collection of slides that he took with his Argus C4 camera. Those slides showed a beautiful place.....but very isolated.
The Balcombe family moved to the Monrnington Peninsula near the Melbourne suburb of Balcombe. There is a big house called The Briars which is a museum of Napoleon artifacts. Many were gifts given to the 14 yo girl, I remember a triangular guitar, a balika? The rumour was the senior Balcombe was seen by the senior civil service as being too close to Napoleon and was probably “shafted” and sent to Australia, probably as a demotion of sorts.
That would be the property where the Australian Army Apprentice School was situated for many years And I doubt he thought Australia was a demotion . Melbourne was the jewel of the Colonies
I was a passenger on the Cape Town Castle which anchored at St Helen in 1967. I wish that I would have known this information before my visit. The grave of Napoleon was much better tended in this video than it was when I saw it.
21:18 "We have a way of telling history in a way that makes us look good ... 21:44 "...what is the best way to remember these people ?" 21:46 "the best way is to lean on the Descendant community ..."
While Jacob's Ladder was formerly a funicular built to connect to the fort, today the staircase connects Jamestown to its suburb of Half Tree Hollow at the top! Half Tree Hollow actually has a bigger population than Jamestown, and that's why it exists. As James Valley of course lacks room for expansion, Half Tree Hollow at the top of Ladder Hill where there was more space, grew in the 1960s. Besides the slave trade and Napoleon, St. Helena also had a minor role in WWII. A U-Boat targeted the oil tanker RFA Darkdale in James Bay in October 1941 with only nine of the 50-man crew surviving. Darkdale had been sent to St Helena a few months earlier to refuel ships operating in the South Atlantic. The wreck leaked small amounts of oil until its gradual deterioration caused the Ministry of Defence to send a team of divers to pump out all the remaining oil in June 2015 Napoleon's stay on Elba was famously temporary (which of course led the UK to send him even further from Europe), but it's interesting too. He was made sovereign of the non-hereditary Principality of Elba, as in he would be its only ruler and under the Treaty of Fontainebleau, once he died, the principality would pass to Tuscany. He was also granted a stipend of two million francs per year to be paid by France. As well as creating a small navy and army, Napoleon developed the island's iron mines, oversaw the construction of new roads, issued decrees on modern agricultural methods, and overhauled the island's legal and educational system. But of course after being on Elba for ten months, he escaped to France in February 1815.
This certainly adds to our general knowledge of a little-known, but fascinating place. It ended rather abruptly. I thought maybe I'd hit the wrong button. There's always some kind of flaw that in HH presentations. However, it does leave the viewer wanting more.
This has been my favorite place I have never been for several years. I’ve been to over 60 countries, but from all I’ve read and watched on St Helena, it would be in my top 5 if I ever went. It’s intense remoteness is the draw for me. Thanks for putting this up!
This was very well done. Started off as a Neapolitan documentary but ended up being a great insight into the history of St. Helena ! Very smooth transition and most importantly , I learned a lot about a place I may or may not ever go. Very valuable content. You even had the courage to speak on the islands role in slavery, the Bore war and even the Zulu’s . Very well done. I really want to see the guy who climbed those stairs in 5 minutes. That guy must be a beast who is in excellent condition.
The bit about the freed African slaves is obligatory whether it is true or not or an accurate representation or not and Snow managed to get it in in under one minute😅
@alansjf33 All a lot of nonsense, Napoleon most probably never existed, history - his-story, not ours, is a set of lies agreed upon, we are given an official narrative yet when you dive a little deeper never truly makes any sense, those who know - know, if what I’m saying doesn’t yet resonate with you, start thinking a little more critically about things, good luck with your journey of awakening 🙂
Always been interested in the island…I inherited a carved wooden box that is surrounded by a vague story of a boer ancestor who was held on the island…E.E.L. K.EV 1902. Thank you for the video and well researched content.
Honestly have never heard of that place now that I have stumbled here will have to learn more about the place the Waterloo Battle well every time I goes Waterloo I try to Imangine how it was🎉🎉
My Grandfather Frank Wilson lived in Longwood house after the war when he was the manager for the Cable and Wireless company his last career posting before retirement .
A good book regarding Napoleons time on St Helena is ‘The Emperor’s Last Island’ by Julia Blackburn. Non fiction. May be out of print as read it years ago but probably available in out of print books like Abe, etc. Very good book.
A very interesting story. One of the histories, of Napoleon's incarceration I read many years ago, stated that the British were slowly poisoning Napoleon, by putting arsenic in his food. During the autopsy, was his body tested for heavy metal poisoning?
That was not possible in those days.But it has been tested,from hair samples, in the 20th century,by atomic neutron activation in atomic reactors.They found a high arsenic content.
@@irenehartlmayr8369 It's possible that Napoleon's food was being spiked with arsenic to quietly get rid of him, however the surviving examples of wallpaper in Longwood House at the time were found to have a high arsenic content to begin with. Being in a toxic environment certainly wouldn't have done Napoleon any good. Anyway, assuming Boney WAS poisoned what are we going to do about it now? Find the guy who did it, dig him up and send him to prison for life? 😉
What a Terrific and Disturbing Documentary...I am so impressed with Annina Van Neel, she is really something...I just cannot have enough respect for her...Thank you for doing this insightful Doc...
Imagine if you were an officer or soldier in the British Army and maybe playing strategic war games against each other either on a table or on the grounds. It would be a learning experience for a young officer would be taking an advanced class in tactics and such from a master.
My Stepfather had a collection of items from his ancestor Ibbetson.who had drawn him on the journey to Saint Helena. They became friends.my mum sold everything at auction.including a lock of hair from Napoleon after his death.a momento mori.
Great video. I have visited the island and was impressed by the people. However, it is not remote any more as it now has an international airport with regular passenger flights from South Africa.
It was an informative historical coverage (video) about finals six years in his life through British captivity in Sant Helena Island. Thank you ( 🙏 History Hit) channel for sharing.
God, imagine the initial relief of being liberated from slavery, only to realise that you were just going to be left to starve and rot in squalor on St Helena.
Yes indeed a very tough place to be left with little chance of survival.. but had they been returned home to Africa..would the black slave traders had them captured again to sell on as slaves again..I do remember a female black slave trader quoted as saying the British can take anything but not our slave trade...it took many years for the British to stop the transatlantic slave trade.
I have never seen St. Helena filmed in such detail as this, nor did I know anything at all about Napoleon's confinement and death, although I did learn yesterday, from excellent food channel 'Tasting History', something of his food habits, incl the recipe for 'Chicken Marengo' and how when on his deathbed he asked for a glass of his favourite wine. Of course, Boney is v much du jour, what with the fillum and all, so it would be hard not to learn SOMETHING.. Nice one, Dan The Man With The Tan. ⭐👍
I have never learned so much about napoleon. The island is beautiful Love history Not sure if I want to be in between those 2 rocky hills Boy how many steps ?
Several years ago someone claimed Napoleon was poisoned by the arsenic in the wallpaper on the walls. Apparently making wallpaper in that era required using arsenic as a sizing material. I don’t know if that theory was ever really investigated.
Yes Napoleon never cared for food or taste … he is is to eat meat and desert at same time and said “ what’s is the difference .. it’s only food after all …. Lol …as a French custom this is way beyond understanding….but just imagine you put Napoleon or say a lion put in a confined zone called Saint Helena …
I've seen other videos on Napoleon's life here, but none of them went on to show other aspects of the island, as if this tiny speck in the ocean is only noteworthy because of him. Your video shows otherwise. Thank you.
My wife’s ancestor Anthony Mackenrot tried to get him into a British court when he was aboard ship in Torbay. It’s alleged that he did in fact serve the subpoena on him but that night the ship sailed to St Helena in a hurry because the government did not want him to land on British soil.
I feel he was poisoned. Apparently the amount it cost to keep him captive was ludicrous.. they had two ships circling the island 24 hours a day.. a full battalion to watch over him. Probably they felt the costs were not worth it.. Poison seems likely to cause great liver damage which led to his death. That's my view.
No that was investigated and the only thing found was that the glue in the Wall Paper had arsenic and it became a vapour as it got older especially with fires going
I love how the British, including in this video, love to pat themselves on the back about "abolishing the slave trade" in 1807 but ignore that slavery was still completely legal in the British Empire for another 30 years!
It was, but that wasn't anything to do with the transatlantic slave trade. We never had those slaves in the UK. And yes, we absolutely DO deserve pats on the back, and a lot more actually. We led the way, at great cost to ourselves with no benefits.
I find it ironic how the woman in the video talks about the British stopping "illegal Portuguese" slave traders. But was slavery illegal in Portugal or just in Britain? Was Britain forcing its laws on Portugal?
@@kevinb9830 The British do deserve to pat themselves on the back, but not for 1807. The abolishment of slavery was in 1837. Between 1807 and 1837 there were millions of slaves in the British empire. To say "we never had those slaves in UK" is irrelevant (and wrong, as there were some slaves in the UK). Of course most of the slaves were in the Caribbean because that's where their free labour was being used to harvest crops like cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane that were imported to the UK. To a Jamaican child born into a lifetime of slavery in 1836 the fact that the trade of slaves from Africa to Jamaica had been banned in 1807 was irrelevant.
@@critercat Why bring up the years before slavery was abolished? For what purpose? Nobody lauds the British or anyone else for owning slaves prior to the decision to abolish it, which came with more forward thinking based on science - the lauding comes from the fact we sought to end it, at great cost to ourselves, at a time when no other powers wanted to. Africans were at least as complicit in the slave trade aanyway, as were many others. You seem to have a problem accepting that morality evolves.
Who even cares? Imagine still crying about something that happened over 200 years ago. Irish suffered from slavery and was labelled more disposable and cheaper, cry more and get on with your life.
The British didn't take the slave back to Africa because the African King's would have rounded them up and sold them again. The British had to put them somewhere and that was the best place at the time.
Most the slave ships were coming from Portuguese Angola heading to Brazil. Most the slaves would have been captured by African's in Africa but then sold onto the Portuguese in Angola. You are right that the British couldn't have exactly sailed into Angola after ceasing their slave ships to drop off ex slaves. I don't think the Portuguese would have liked that. I also agree that there was no good place to drop the ex slaves off. However it has to be seen as a major major failing that the British didn't provision the Island better for the ex slaves, especially that this went on for decades.
@@davedavids57 Why would we have done that? We were already spending a lot of money freeing them around the world at great cost to ourselves with no tangible benefits.
20:30 sadly, when the liberated to-be slaves were returned to Africa, most were recaptured by the Africans who sold them to the Europeans in the first place only to return them to the slave traders. Hence them being dropped off on free islands. More needs to be done to shine a light on the African societies responsible for profiting from the transatlantic slave trade. Think about it this way: If you free a cow from a truck taking it to a slaughterhouse, where would you take it? Now imagine that 200 years ago. The reason why I use a cow as a contemporary example, is because slaves then were seen as no more than that. How the world, including you, views cattle right now is how people everywhere then viewed slaves. The British banning slavery is almost as out of the ordinary then as the US banning the meat industry would be today, and fighting for it.
I work with him! He is an incredibly fit hill runner from Scotland. The record was actually broken shortly after this filming, by a French man working on the island. Unfortunately the official timing event was cancelled due to external factors, so the record officially remains with the Scottish man.
There were rumours of plots and even of his escape from Saint Helena, but in reality, no serious attempts were ever made. For English poet Lord Byron, Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted, lonely, and flawed genius.
what an interesting and informative documentary about St Helena,geographically,a tiny dot of land in the South Atlantic ocean and yet historically a bigger story it has to tell.Its ironic that Napoleon was born in Corsica,a small,rocky mountainous island and died on a small,rocky mountainous island.The lovely lady from the National Trust you chatted to with her surname of Van Neel,you can tell with that simple clue,her descendants were either Dutch or Dutch Boer.One thing I was curious about is that there's a French Consul on the island,is that purely an honorary & symbolic position because of the island's connection with Napoleon or does he hold those credentials allowing him to carry out official diplomatic work/duties on behalf of the french state on St Helena.
@@jacktattis leaning about some African small Island s is so frustrating now even peoples were moved from their Homes by UK and USA and basically died Miserable peoples away some even too young..yes good Humanity
@@stevenmutumbu2860 Bloody hell this was the Late 1830s do you expect The Brits to feed them clothe them house them No bloody planes back then to bring supplies The people of the Island probably had very little themselves
Check out the movie "Monsieur N" if you wanna get a feel for this final phase of Napoleon's life. It's a bit of a drama (as in not super accurate), but it does a wonderful job of giving you the "flavor" of his time on St Helena, and the actor portraying him (Phillipe Torreton) is wonderful.
It is unfortunate that he was not in good health, or he could have explored the island. There are some gorgeous views if you check out photos on Google maps.
I wondered why didn’t the British execute Napoleon? I suspect there were diplomatic reasons to keep him as a prisoner and his status as a head of state. Perhaps as a bargaining chip. The French would have been outraged and more truculent after the war.
Yes, basically, as you stated. Imagine the allies executing him after selling propaganda about him being a tyrant. Napoleon's only fault is that he let his enemies off easy.
Thanks for that. I lived there as a boy between 1970 and 1975. It was a truly special place. Saw Longwood, the empty tomb and the Boer cemetery. My father worked at the Castle. We lived at Luffkins Towers. I went to Country Junior School. I don't think I ran up Jacobs Ladder but I may have walked once, can't remember - it was far from where we lived. I remember the gun battery at the top and have a St Helena Rifles cap badge I found there. I never dared to slide down it - shoulders on one banister knees on the other, that was the thing real kids did. Union Castle line was the only way there - 12 passengers on 12 off every month. Everyone at school wanted to be a merchant seaman. Big heap of coal on the wharf and coal lighters from the old coaling station days. We burned coal fires in our house high up in the interior. Truly magical place, especially when you are 5-10 years old. Flax and donkeys. We had two. Squealing when the pig was killed. School friends so poor they had no shoes and no teeth. Glad I lived there. Taught me a lot about life. We were lucky to be ex pat and "rich" but it opened my eyes even so young to poverty and "otherness".
My Pop knew Gilbert Martineau, who was the French man there at the time, must be the father of yer man. He wrote some seminal works about Napoleon (we have signed copies) and his exile.
Fantastic stories, thanks for sharing
I love History and Geography I'm ashamed that I've never heard about this place thanks alot for giving more depth information,wasn't even born those years 😂😂 🎉Greetings from London
Fantastic!
This is what makes social media worth all the nonsense. Thanks for your memories and bringing history current. Living on that island as a kid must have been amazing! ✌🏻
@@donny_doyle hope will meet again 2064 AFRICA been waiting but so many subordinate but making a mark to be remembered
Visited St. HELENA in the seventies with the Royal Navy. One place never forgotten, even had a walk through Napoleans house.
Historian and Napoleon biographer Andrew Roberts lay down in his bed. He wasn't a short man
While the new Napoleon movie may not have been the greatest, the storm of new content on him here on UA-cam makes up for it 😂
I’m so surprised at how the consensus is that the movie is bad or at least not good, when I myself thought it was at least decent if not erring on the side of good. When Oppenheimer, which I thought was oppositely erring on bad, is so widely talked about as a masterpiece. Not a jab just a thought. But I do agree love the history content!
If you're Napoleon, raise your two hands!!! And say MEEEE!!😅😊
@@SilkyJohnston24that’s the beauty of opinions.
Bring his ceazy story back to life!!
@@mariamjehn7071 With more love and makeup after fight scenes!!!
Thanks Dan, I always wondered about St Helena because I live in Mount Martha just out of Melbourne (Australia) and am surrounded by landmarks such as Balcombe Creek, Helena Street and The Briars homestead. The Briars Mt Martha grazing property was established in the mid-1800s by Alexander Balcombe, son of William Balcombe of St Helena. Alexander was a small boy when Napoleon was on St Helena. The Briars was the original homestead in this area - the rest was bush. Today it’s open to the public and it housed a collection of Napoleon memorabilia that the family had brought from St Helena, at least it did until a lot of it was nicked about 10 years ago and the rest was moved to a proper museum with better security. The thieves “came in through the bathroom window” and stole, among other things, a lock of Napoleon’s hair! Anyhow, it’s been great to see what the real St Helena and the original Briars is actually like.
I spent some time on Ascension Island but didn't have the opportunity to visit St. Helena although I did spend a lot of time with the St. Helenians that lived on Ascension. The Saints, as they are called, were an interesting bunch and pretty likeable on the whole.
Nicking Napoleon's hair..lol, it must've been stolen on order do you reckon, unless they wanted for themselves?
@@themerchantofenglandyeah, police believe it was stolen to order
I would never let a Frenchman, or any man wrestle my "little" daughter... bro... no
Son of a biatch.i hope at least it was taken by a collector and not a seller. Someone who appreciates what they've "nicked" as u Brits are so fond of saying. I saw a similar situation coming here in silicon valley years ago where they had a great display of rare rifles at the Winchester House with practically no real security against someone who wanted dozens of rare guns like myself. Fortunately they got some real security a decade later and lost nothing prior to needing it up.I was surprised to read just a few years ago how little security that European art museums had and the price they paid for that lack of attention.Ditto for the libraries here in the US where people were stealing millions in rare books and manuscripts.
Fantastic production, Dan Snow's style of reporting keeps you rivetted.
Thank you for sharing this incredible history. I love that you pull people in with Napoleon but then share a complicated and often disturbing past. Please keep telling undertold stories like this!
Best part of video is you climbing the stairs. Looked really tough. God bless you! Feat well done.
Enjoyed learning something new about St Helena's history. I had no idea there was so much going on there in the 19th century!
I climbed Jacob's Ladder years ago during a cruise ship excursion. My legs were sore for days after the climb. Unfortunately, my visit was a brief stopover without seeing Napoleon's house and much of the scenery covered in this video. The video makes up for most of the parts that I missed, especially the information about the liberated African slaves and the Boer cemetery. The island's history is fascinating. I wish that I could have spent more time exploring St. Helena. I randomly came across this historical video and it fills in the gaps of what I missed. It immediately took me back to my all but too-brief St. Helena adventure.
My father used to slide down it with his hands and feet on both sides!
I've always found it fascinating that Napoleonic tactics weren't conquered by man's thoughts but by man's innovation in weaponry. The fifled musket and new ammunition made man change tactics. Napoleon was a genius in militarism, and he knew military victory could unite a country more than any political reforms. Much hasn't changed....
the rifled musket was not used by the French. Napoleon hated them
@jacktattis That's why I said the Rifiled Musket and new ammunition changed tactics. AKA...The American Civil War. Both sides, at first, were using Napoleonic tactics, but had to change and by late 1862 field works became popular.
Im from st Helena 🇸🇭 my grandmother house is next to napoleon house in longwood
RÉSZVÉTEM...RÉMES HELY
thats cool, I hope to go there one day
I thought Napoleon’s life in exile was much harsher than this. Great video. Thank you.
I don’t know why but I have an insatiable appetite for learning about men like this.
I read this not too long ago but after his defeat at Waterloo Napoleon considered making a run for the United States and even had a French frigate standing by for the attempt. However the Royal Navy had the French harbors blockaded making a run impossible.
It's interesting to speculate just what the reaction to Napoleon's arrival here in the US might have been. His brother Joseph Bonaparte had come here earlier and had an estate near Bordentown NJ. He was well-liked in the area as well, a fine neighbor by all accounts.
I’m glad he never made it.
A Canadian.
Sure he did.
Pas
Without armies following him he was probably an amiable person. Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot and Josef Stalin might have been fine neighbors if they hadn't had nations following them. How fine a neighbor someone is seems like a flawed metric for a person imprisoned after causing the deaths of many thousands or millions of people.
well he could'nt have been the Emperor of San Francisio, as it already had one
Could you imagine if Napoleon escaped and played a role on the American Side of The War of 1812 😳
And if building that High Null Fort was a challenge, building the island's airport was just as much of a tough challenge! The airport opened in 2016, but the concept goes further back than that. The first consideration of an airport on St Helena was made in 1943 by the South African Air Force, which undertook a survey on Prosperous Bay Plain, but concluded that, while technically feasible, an airport was not a practical proposition. When the last ocean liner to dock there stopped in 1977, St. Helena was cut off, and the UK stepped in by supplying a hybrid cargo/passenger ship called the RMS St. Helena. But when it became evident the RMS St. Helena needed to be replaced in the 2000s, they knew that it was better to build an airport, so they announced plans for one in 2005.
There were two big concerns regarding the airport during its construction, that it was built on the ecologically diverse Prosperous Bay Plain which is an important site for endemic wildlife like the St. Helena plover, and wind shear. Comair was given the contract to fly to St. Helena, and they first tested in April 2016 with a Boeing 737-800, but it had a problematic landing as it landed on the third approach. When coming in to land from the north, it was now apparent that wind shear was going to be a significant issue. To combat this, they decided to have planes approach the airport from the south only to find that this too was problematic. Planes landing there need to land with a tailwind, which makes it quite challenging, on top of the short runway. The first scheduled commercial flight wouldn't take place until October 2017.
That was a lovely opening drone shot, well done at the smooth panning!
This is best documentary I have ever seen on historical subject … The way narrative goes ….. I subscribed …. Immediately
It’s good but not the best .. The documentary presented by Michael wood - in the footsteps of Alexander the Great is probably the best documentary ever ..
Me too!
Thank You So Much for Sharing Valuable Unknown History.
One of the very Best of UA-cam. Congrats to all involved!
Another information filled video! Thanks HH and Dan.
My Grandfather spent a couple years on Ascencion Island building barracks and myriad other constructions.......he showed us as kids his collection of slides that he took with his Argus C4 camera. Those slides showed a beautiful place.....but very isolated.
I've worked on Ascension island off and on since 2020! Love it and love going back!
Thank you channel for sharing interesting and interesting historical information
Yes, I agree.
The Balcombe family moved to the Monrnington Peninsula near the Melbourne suburb of Balcombe. There is a big house called The Briars which is a museum of Napoleon artifacts. Many were gifts given to the 14 yo girl, I remember a triangular guitar, a balika? The rumour was the senior Balcombe was seen by the senior civil service as being too close to Napoleon and was probably “shafted” and sent to Australia, probably as a demotion of sorts.
very interesting, thank you for the insight
That would be the property where the Australian Army Apprentice School was situated for many years And I doubt he thought Australia was a demotion . Melbourne was the jewel of the Colonies
I was a passenger on the Cape Town Castle which anchored at St Helen in 1967. I wish that I would have known this information before my visit. The grave of Napoleon was much better tended in this video than it was when I saw it.
Michel Dancoisne Martineau did and always do a great job to restore and preserve the French Domains of Saint-Helena.
This is the best on St. Helena I've seen ever.
Beautiful place..we sailed there on our way from CapeTown..great video!
fascinating docu Dan, your empathy shines thru
21:18 "We have a way of telling history in a way that makes us look good ...
21:44 "...what is the best way to remember these people ?"
21:46 "the best way is to lean on the Descendant community ..."
I really enjoyed this one! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve climbed Jacobs ladder. It is the one at Cheddar Gorge. That one is quite imposing also. 🙂
While Jacob's Ladder was formerly a funicular built to connect to the fort, today the staircase connects Jamestown to its suburb of Half Tree Hollow at the top! Half Tree Hollow actually has a bigger population than Jamestown, and that's why it exists. As James Valley of course lacks room for expansion, Half Tree Hollow at the top of Ladder Hill where there was more space, grew in the 1960s. Besides the slave trade and Napoleon, St. Helena also had a minor role in WWII. A U-Boat targeted the oil tanker RFA Darkdale in James Bay in October 1941 with only nine of the 50-man crew surviving. Darkdale had been sent to St Helena a few months earlier to refuel ships operating in the South Atlantic. The wreck leaked small amounts of oil until its gradual deterioration caused the Ministry of Defence to send a team of divers to pump out all the remaining oil in June 2015
Napoleon's stay on Elba was famously temporary (which of course led the UK to send him even further from Europe), but it's interesting too. He was made sovereign of the non-hereditary Principality of Elba, as in he would be its only ruler and under the Treaty of Fontainebleau, once he died, the principality would pass to Tuscany. He was also granted a stipend of two million francs per year to be paid by France. As well as creating a small navy and army, Napoleon developed the island's iron mines, oversaw the construction of new roads, issued decrees on modern agricultural methods, and overhauled the island's legal and educational system. But of course after being on Elba for ten months, he escaped to France in February 1815.
This certainly adds to our general knowledge of a little-known, but fascinating place. It ended rather abruptly. I thought maybe I'd hit the wrong button.
There's always some kind of flaw that in HH presentations. However, it does leave the viewer wanting more.
I have been very fortunate to visit the Island 4 times sailing and cruising
This has been my favorite place I have never been for several years. I’ve been to over 60 countries, but from all I’ve read and watched on St Helena, it would be in my top 5 if I ever went. It’s intense remoteness is the draw for me. Thanks for putting this up!
This is so well done. As a Black woman, I did not know this slavery history in St. Helena. The "liberated" Africans were left to die. Heartbreaking.
This was very well done. Started off as a Neapolitan documentary but ended up being a great insight into the history of St. Helena ! Very smooth transition and most importantly , I learned a lot about a place I may or may not ever go. Very valuable content. You even had the courage to speak on the islands role in slavery, the Bore war and even the Zulu’s . Very well done.
I really want to see the guy who climbed those stairs in 5 minutes. That guy must be a beast who is in excellent condition.
The bit about the freed African slaves is obligatory whether it is true or not or an accurate representation or not and Snow managed to get it in in under one minute😅
@@calummackenzie1050 That bit happens to be true in this case.
@alansjf33 All a lot of nonsense, Napoleon most probably never existed, history - his-story, not ours, is a set of lies agreed upon, we are given an official narrative yet when you dive a little deeper never truly makes any sense, those who know - know, if what I’m saying doesn’t yet resonate with you, start thinking a little more critically about things, good luck with your journey of awakening 🙂
@@lukethebodyyou wrote a great comment that made me think some. What are some reasons you think he didn’t exist?
Yeah the Bore War which was then replaced by the Rifled War.
Always been interested in the island…I inherited a carved wooden box that is surrounded by a vague story of a boer ancestor who was held on the island…E.E.L. K.EV 1902.
Thank you for the video and well researched content.
Honestly have never heard of that place now that I have stumbled here will have to learn more about the place the Waterloo Battle well every time I goes Waterloo I try to Imangine how it was🎉🎉
Always such great videos, well done Dan and the history Hit team!
Napoleon loved a Grand Cru Red Burgundy called "Chambertin" made from Pinot Noir that is still to this day one of the most revered red Burgundies.
My Grandfather Frank Wilson lived in Longwood house after the war when he was the manager for the Cable and Wireless company his last career posting before retirement .
A good book regarding Napoleons time on St Helena is ‘The Emperor’s Last Island’ by Julia Blackburn. Non fiction. May be out of print as read it years ago but probably available in out of print books like Abe, etc. Very good book.
Snow on the road took me totally off guard. Nice job.
A very interesting story. One of the histories, of Napoleon's incarceration I read many years ago, stated that the British were slowly poisoning Napoleon, by putting arsenic in his food. During the autopsy, was his body tested for heavy metal poisoning?
That was not possible in those days.But it has been tested,from hair samples, in the 20th century,by atomic neutron activation in atomic reactors.They found a high arsenic content.
@@irenehartlmayr8369 It's possible that Napoleon's food was being spiked with arsenic to quietly get rid of him, however the surviving examples of wallpaper in Longwood House at the time were found to have a high arsenic content to begin with. Being in a toxic environment certainly wouldn't have done Napoleon any good.
Anyway, assuming Boney WAS poisoned what are we going to do about it now? Find the guy who did it, dig him up and send him to prison for life? 😉
The Wallpaper had arsenic in the colours
@@irenehartlmayr8369 My understanding was that the information was derived from samples of his hair. I was just looking for a confirmation of that.
@@1pixman Yes, I remember that.
Excellent documentary. Thoroughly enjoyed watching this well presented piece of amazing history.
What a Terrific and Disturbing Documentary...I am so impressed with Annina Van Neel, she is really something...I just cannot have enough respect for her...Thank you for doing this insightful Doc...
17:00 props to the film crew for getting up there with all their equipment
They drove to the top via Ladder Hill road.
@@Dreaming5 props to the civil engineers for designing a road to get up there
Props to the white tshirt guy who was enjoying his evening and moved so that he doesn’t disturb the shoot.
Imagine if you were an officer or soldier in the British Army and maybe playing strategic war games against each other either on a table or on the grounds. It would be a learning experience for a young officer would be taking an advanced class in tactics and such from a master.
My Stepfather had a collection of items from his ancestor Ibbetson.who had drawn him on the journey to Saint Helena. They became friends.my mum sold everything at auction.including a lock of hair from Napoleon after his death.a momento mori.
Master????? up to1812 after that only glimpses .
Great video. I have visited the island and was impressed by the people. However, it is not remote any more as it now has an international airport with regular passenger flights from South Africa.
It was an informative historical coverage (video) about finals six years in his life through British captivity in Sant Helena Island. Thank you ( 🙏 History Hit) channel for sharing.
Beautiful photo, Mohammed.
i loved this video cause ive seen a bunch of videos on life in st. helena and none went this on-depth
Wow! What an extraordinary story and so well told.
My Great Grandfather was harbour master there around the time Napoleons time.
Cool
I would love to hear your story! We should chat sometime if you’re ok with that. Possibly do a small documentary.
God, imagine the initial relief of being liberated from slavery, only to realise that you were just going to be left to starve and rot in squalor on St Helena.
Better than being on a slaveship.
Yes indeed a very tough place to be left with little chance of survival.. but had they been returned home to Africa..would the black slave traders had them captured again to sell on as slaves again..I do remember a female black slave trader quoted as saying the British can take anything but not our slave trade...it took many years for the British to stop the transatlantic slave trade.
I have never seen St. Helena filmed in such detail as this, nor did I know anything at all about Napoleon's confinement and death, although I did learn yesterday, from excellent food channel 'Tasting History', something of his food habits, incl the recipe for 'Chicken Marengo' and how when on his deathbed he asked for a glass of his favourite wine.
Of course, Boney is v much du jour, what with the fillum and all, so it would be hard not to learn SOMETHING.. Nice one, Dan The Man With The Tan. ⭐👍
I visited St Helena in July. A wonderful place, with so much Napoleonic history.
I was there in 2005. There was a massive turtle that was born a few years after Napoleon died.
Jonathon is still there.
@@robertthomson1587 good to know😃
Is there regular airline service there or you need to go by ship?
There's one flight a week on Saturday from Johannesburg to St Helena, then back to Johannesburg.
Thank you for sharing with us an educational video.
That was fascinating! Thanks Dan
I have never learned so much about napoleon.
The island is beautiful
Love history
Not sure if I want to be in between those 2 rocky hills
Boy how many steps ?
699 steps on Jacobs ladder
Now I've seen this I want to go there!
Fascinating program 👍 very watchable ...love to visit island 🏝
I would love to visit the island. ❤
Fascinating! Thank you for putting this up.
Such an excellent presentation. Learned a lot and I thank you.
Thank you for this. I totally enjoyed it.
Several years ago someone claimed Napoleon was poisoned by the arsenic in the wallpaper on the walls. Apparently making wallpaper in that era required using arsenic as a sizing material. I don’t know if that theory was ever really investigated.
Red wallpaper was made with arsrnic
@@sharkeyesno you’re wrong
Thank you for sharing. The video was very interesting indeed.
Yes Napoleon never cared for food or taste … he is is to eat meat and desert at same time and said “ what’s is the difference .. it’s only food after all …. Lol …as a French custom this is way beyond understanding….but just imagine you put Napoleon or say a lion put in a confined zone called Saint Helena …
Wars the difference, it's only food after all.
@@ssengendonasser6293 A hawheehawheehaw .... Napoleeo' ... oooolala vive la France a hawheehaw.
Thanks for this really informative
Hearing the genuine history, good & bad, is not always pleasant, but that just means we understand what needs to be improved. 😉
Class documentary. History hit has incredible content
I've seen other videos on Napoleon's life here, but none of them went on to show other aspects of the island, as if this tiny speck in the ocean is only noteworthy because of him. Your video shows otherwise. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing us, I'm from Tanzania
My wife’s ancestor Anthony Mackenrot tried to get him into a British court when he was aboard ship in Torbay. It’s alleged that he did in fact serve the subpoena on him but that night the ship sailed to St Helena in a hurry because the government did not want him to land on British soil.
stop the cap lol
Super good piece! History Hit just does is differently.
History Hit: 🍺
Me:
I feel he was poisoned. Apparently the amount it cost to keep him captive was ludicrous.. they had two ships circling the island 24 hours a day.. a full battalion to watch over him. Probably they felt the costs were not worth it..
Poison seems likely to cause great liver damage which led to his death. That's my view.
He thought the British were gonna sent him off to some English country estate, they sent him somewhere fitting for him to die.
No that was investigated and the only thing found was that the glue in the Wall Paper had arsenic and it became a vapour as it got older especially with fires going
Ancient way to stop beetles eating the paste and wallpaper. They really should be careful renovating old houses in UK!
Hey HH. Love your work 👍
Napoleon didn't pick the burial site at St. Helena, the British government chose that spot.
yeah, that’s what the british told you
EGY SZIKLAHASADÉKBA TETTÉK, SEMMI MÉLTOSÁG, 100 ÉVIG MIRE AZ
INVALIDUSOK TEMPLOMÁBA SZENTELTÉK... ÖVÉ A DIDALIV ÉS DICSÖSÉG
No,he chose the burial site as he assumed that the British would not give permission to free his body to be sent elsewhere.
pretty cool history video, thank you.
I love how the British, including in this video, love to pat themselves on the back about "abolishing the slave trade" in 1807 but ignore that slavery was still completely legal in the British Empire for another 30 years!
It was, but that wasn't anything to do with the transatlantic slave trade. We never had those slaves in the UK. And yes, we absolutely DO deserve pats on the back, and a lot more actually. We led the way, at great cost to ourselves with no benefits.
I find it ironic how the woman in the video talks about the British stopping "illegal Portuguese" slave traders. But was slavery illegal in Portugal or just in Britain? Was Britain forcing its laws on Portugal?
@@kevinb9830 The British do deserve to pat themselves on the back, but not for 1807. The abolishment of slavery was in 1837. Between 1807 and 1837 there were millions of slaves in the British empire. To say "we never had those slaves in UK" is irrelevant (and wrong, as there were some slaves in the UK). Of course most of the slaves were in the Caribbean because that's where their free labour was being used to harvest crops like cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane that were imported to the UK. To a Jamaican child born into a lifetime of slavery in 1836 the fact that the trade of slaves from Africa to Jamaica had been banned in 1807 was irrelevant.
@@critercat Why bring up the years before slavery was abolished? For what purpose? Nobody lauds the British or anyone else for owning slaves prior to the decision to abolish it, which came with more forward thinking based on science - the lauding comes from the fact we sought to end it, at great cost to ourselves, at a time when no other powers wanted to. Africans were at least as complicit in the slave trade aanyway, as were many others. You seem to have a problem accepting that morality evolves.
Who even cares? Imagine still crying about something that happened over 200 years ago. Irish suffered from slavery and was labelled more disposable and cheaper, cry more and get on with your life.
Fantastic documentary
The British didn't take the slave back to Africa because the African King's would have rounded them up and sold them again. The British had to put them somewhere and that was the best place at the time.
You meant to write "slaves" & "kings"
Most the slave ships were coming from Portuguese Angola heading to Brazil. Most the slaves would have been captured by African's in Africa but then sold onto the Portuguese in Angola. You are right that the British couldn't have exactly sailed into Angola after ceasing their slave ships to drop off ex slaves. I don't think the Portuguese would have liked that. I also agree that there was no good place to drop the ex slaves off. However it has to be seen as a major major failing that the British didn't provision the Island better for the ex slaves, especially that this went on for decades.
That’s actually a very good point
*kings
@@davedavids57 Why would we have done that? We were already spending a lot of money freeing them around the world at great cost to ourselves with no tangible benefits.
Great video! but needs subtitles
20:30 sadly, when the liberated to-be slaves were returned to Africa, most were recaptured by the Africans who sold them to the Europeans in the first place only to return them to the slave traders. Hence them being dropped off on free islands. More needs to be done to shine a light on the African societies responsible for profiting from the transatlantic slave trade. Think about it this way: If you free a cow from a truck taking it to a slaughterhouse, where would you take it? Now imagine that 200 years ago. The reason why I use a cow as a contemporary example, is because slaves then were seen as no more than that. How the world, including you, views cattle right now is how people everywhere then viewed slaves. The British banning slavery is almost as out of the ordinary then as the US banning the meat industry would be today, and fighting for it.
Thank you for a relaxing and enjoyable film
I came looking for Napoleonic sentimentality... and found gold. Saint Helena, where the enemies of the British Empire went to die.
No that was Inland Australia
Excellent video! Thank you History Hit.
7:08 “British paid French doctors”
Such a miserable demise for such a great gentleman :’(
Well, FAFO, I guess...
LEGGONOSZABB KINZÓ NÉPSÉG A BRITEK, SEMMI NEM ELÉG NEKIK A BOSSZUBOL....OLYANOK MINDIG MINT A BOSSZU NÉPE
Who do I contact to hand in the original key to the cottage… as I have it here
I can imagine Napoleon chilling out playing his Plsystation there
I’d like to meet the guy that made the climb in 5 minutes!
I work with him! He is an incredibly fit hill runner from Scotland. The record was actually broken shortly after this filming, by a French man working on the island. Unfortunately the official timing event was cancelled due to external factors, so the record officially remains with the Scottish man.
This would be awesome. I've always been fascinated with him.
There were rumours of plots and even of his escape from Saint Helena, but in reality, no serious attempts were ever made. For English poet Lord Byron, Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted, lonely, and flawed genius.
Well Byron was the same
I’ve been to Ascension Island and being a neighbouring island to St Helena is quite relative.
what an interesting and informative documentary about St Helena,geographically,a tiny dot of land in the South Atlantic ocean and yet historically a bigger story it has to tell.Its ironic that Napoleon was born in Corsica,a small,rocky mountainous island and died on a small,rocky mountainous island.The lovely lady from the National Trust you chatted to with her surname of Van Neel,you can tell with that simple clue,her descendants were either Dutch or Dutch Boer.One thing I was curious about is that there's a French Consul on the island,is that purely an honorary & symbolic position because of the island's connection with Napoleon or does he hold those credentials allowing him to carry out official diplomatic work/duties on behalf of the french state on St Helena.
Just stumbled here very Intresting Documentary never heard of this Place buts seems your Island have a story to learn about ..Greeting from London.
I think he does have Official diplomatic standing. Why ///I have no idea. The Brits should have just left Napoleon where he was.
@@jacktattis leaning about some African small Island s is so frustrating now even peoples were moved from their Homes by UK and USA and basically died Miserable peoples away some even too young..yes good Humanity
@@jacktattis History is there may be thats why they don't want us to learn
@@stevenmutumbu2860 Bloody hell this was the Late 1830s do you expect The Brits to feed them clothe them house them No bloody planes back then to bring supplies
The people of the Island probably had very little themselves
Would live to know if the gym equipment "Jacobs Ladder" got its name from the Jacobs ladder mentioned here.
did he go snorkeling
Sure, why not.
😂
Check out the movie "Monsieur N" if you wanna get a feel for this final phase of Napoleon's life.
It's a bit of a drama (as in not super accurate), but it does a wonderful job of giving you the "flavor" of his time on St Helena, and the actor portraying him (Phillipe Torreton) is wonderful.
I loved "Monsieur N"! It's got to be one of the best movies about Napoleon irregardless of it's premise which makes it so interesting.
Highly interesting.
Being an Emperor and probably very arrogant he may have felt it unfair but thats not a bad prison.
It is unfortunate that he was not in good health, or he could have explored the island. There are some gorgeous views if you check out photos on Google maps.
No place is good when you're locked up
@@goldenvulture6818 He was out in the garden, taking long baths. One would have thought he would be in a Dungeon.
@@daviddesert3132 The fact that he was granted some privileges & luxuries did not change the nature of the situation he was in
@@goldenvulture6818 well yes it does. Most sworn enemies would have been tortured and killed back in those days.
Excellent video thank you!
I wondered why didn’t the British execute Napoleon? I suspect there were diplomatic reasons to keep him as a prisoner and his status as a head of state. Perhaps as a bargaining chip. The French would have been outraged and more truculent after the war.
Yes, basically, as you stated. Imagine the allies executing him after selling propaganda about him being a tyrant. Napoleon's only fault is that he let his enemies off easy.
Can you imagine the waiters being even more insufferable?
@@annoyed707 two hundred years later
They’re all part of the same club, all usury backed.