The Epic Chart of Napoleon's 1812 Russian Campaign by Joseph Minard

Опубликовано: 30 Октябрь 2024
на канале: Mapster

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Napoleon’s March to Russia was an enormous undertaking and one of the most deadly and disturbing episodes in the history of war. Charles Minard, in his 1869 famous chart on the losses of the Grand Armee in 1812-1813, captured something of the epic bravery and horror of this march. Lauded as one of the most perfect and impactful graphics ever made, Minard’s chart is also a map, incredibly created as a storytelling device.

In this video, we’ll review Napoleon’s march itself and the progress of the Grand Armee, as well as the life of Charles Joseph Minard, and some of the speculation regarding why he made this map and what he meant to say with it. There is some controversy about the meaning of the map, and in fact it was not well-known until the later part of the 20th century, when it became a favorite of designers.

Yet the events depicted by the map are deeper even than Napoleon’s march, and touch on the very nature of war and death and great men. "The Figurative Map of the Losses of the Men of the Grand Armee in the Russian Campaign of 1812-1813" is truly a great map. I hope you enjoy the video.
My goal with this series is to explore the amazing maps that humanity has created over the span of human history, and to use these as ways to connect with our ancestors. I hope you enjoy going on this journey with me, and please let me know if you like this format and if you want to see more videos.

A huge thanks to everyone that helped to contribute to this video and whose works are featured here, including:

Images and Art
Albrecht Adam
Faber du Faur
Vasily Vereshchagin
Felician Myrbach
V. Adam
Jacques-Louis David
Jean-Louis Ernest
And many other artists, as well as many clips from Pexels.

Audio
John Field (Nocturne in E Minor)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1812 Overture)
Le Marsellaise
Le Marsellaise "sad" (   • National anthem of France (La Marseil...  )
God Save the Tsar! (   • God Save the Tsar  )
Chanson de l'Oignon (   • French Marching Song: Chanson de l'oi...  )
Camille Saint-Saëns (Le Cygne)
Frédéric Chopin (Funeral March)

And sound effects from https://freesound.org/.

Research
Norbert Landsteiner (https://www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/201..., https://www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/202...)
Edward Tufte's website (https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-...)
Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Beautiful Evidence
Minard charts (https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.n...)
Adam Zamoyski, Moscow 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March
“La méthode graphique dans les sciences expérimentales et principalement en physiologie et en médecine” (https://heritage.ecoledesponts.fr/ark...)
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles..., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...)
Other (https://ageofrevolution.org/200-objec..., https://sciencenorway.no/blog-blog-fr...)
And many more.

More to check out:
Minard Interactive Map (https://1812.tass.ru/en)
   • Napoleon's Moscow campaign: as told b...
   • Napoleon's Downfall: Invasion of Russ...

A nod to Great Art Explained (   / @greatartexplained  ) for helping me come up with the idea for this series.

And of course, thanks to all the many hands along the course of history that created and shared such works, so we can all learn more from the past.

Love,
Victor

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CORRECTIONS
Edward Tufte did not actually state that the map is an "anti-war declaration". That is from articles summarizing his take on the map. My mistake!
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All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

#napoleon #history #map #war #cartography #design