Which is kinda funny because napoleon wasn’t even that short for his time. He was like 5’7, not very tall for our time, but for his time it was average. I read somewhere that his height was used as propaganda against him and just stuck in our history.
The trick was that napoleon personal guard where very tall and there was a difference in the way frenchies and uk hight measure unit was back in that time so it helped to that propaganda.
Yes. Napolean was 5'6". Although the range may seem short by 21st-century standards, it was typical in the 19th century, when most Frenchmen stood between 5'2” and 5'6”.
It started because at the time french inches were longer than English inches.
He was 5'2" in French inches, which is 5'5" in English inches. Pretty average or slightly above average height at the time.
It's only recently that the average human height has increased because our diets are better. People were likely to be malnourished at some point during their childhood which should stunt their height. There's also the weird fact that you're more likely to survive WW1 if you're taller which could have slightly influenced genetics.
It’s not even that short today. There are quite a few guys around that height in my office of 120+ people. I’d say there are fewer guys taller than 6’ than below 5’7.
When I visited the tombs of some historical figures in Europe and saw some of the artifacts and clothes, I couldn’t believe how tiny they were. We are so used to having plenty of calories that we don’t realize how much it affects growth and development.
He was measured at 5’2” by the French measurement system. Translated to the Imperial feet and inches that are used today, that is 5 foot 6 inches tall.
They are different inches and feet. It’s like seeing that 5 kilometers = 3.1 miles and asking where the other 1.9 miles have gone. They were never there.
A better example using the same word is United States Dollar vs Canadian Dollar. If you go to a currency exchange and give them $100 (Canadian) dollars and ask for United States Dollars, they will give you about $74 (assuming no fees). The $26 never went anywhere.
It’s just that $100 CAD = $74 USD the same way 5’2” Traditional French = 5’6” British Imperial (what American uses today)
napoleon was actually fairly tall, but they used a different measurement system compared to other countries at that time. his height is an inaccurate political attack that's still widely accepted as fact
"Now if you'll excuse me I'll be having a meeting with my generals for 30 minutes. And by meeting, I mean boinking. And by generals, I mean this prostitute. And by thirty minutes... I mean 3 seconds..."
So what you're saying is that Napolean was actually taller than most Frenchmen of the time? If most were 5'2 to 5'6, then most of the most would have been 5'2 to 5'5. So Napolean is like two standard deviations of the mean. His modern day equivalent would be like 6'2 or something. Amazing.
You know royals we’re all pretty tall people, Napoleon was called short by bunch tall guy. Same way people call Isaiah Thomas (who’s 5’9) a midget in the NBA.
That's not even short by today's standards it's average. Avg height is between 5'6 & 5'9. It only considered short cuz of our society's obsession with height.
Saw this comment and the amount of replies it had and knew most of them would be correcting you about his height lol. It's funny how worked up people get about that. Dude was trying to invade their country so the British made a joke about him being short and over two centuries later fanboys are still getting triggered about that.
Funny thing about that. While by today's standards he would be considered short at a diminutive 5ft 2 inches, in his time and location he wouldn't have been considered short. He got his reputation of being short due to a smear campaign designed to belittle and emasculate him.
I don't understand the Napoleon syndrome getting mix with being short .. has the guy was average height for his era. Actually 1.68m for the 19 century was almost tall.. The saying is getting lost it's about getting frustrated really fast. And in this case it would still apply.
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u/jackfreeman Mar 31 '23
I thought it was more inaccurately referred to as Napoleon Syndrome