More has been added to this.
I am certain that both Donald Trump and the government of Russia are trying to prompt the emergence of the Antichrist. This will be a European leader that will turn out to be the greatest dictator that the world has ever seen. The Antichrist will be allowed to reign for seven years. At least the second half of it will be the worst time that the world has ever seen. But it will be followed by the Return of Jesus to set up His Kingdom on earth. The governments of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin see their chance to go down in eternal history and both are sure that they will end up on the right side, since the Apocalypse has to happen anyway.
An explanation of the apocalyptic prophecies is in the two parallel postings, "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "Inducing The Apocalypse".
This would be a good time to review Napoleon, who was the leader of Europe and the prototype of the modern dictator. This makes him a predecessor of the Antichrist, although I don't think Napoleon was harsh or oppressive by modern standards.
Napoleon can be considered as the one who really set the pace for the modern world.
Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, which had been acquired by France. He was a military officer when the French Revolution began, in which the king and queen were overthrown and guillotined, although he wasn't directly involved in it. Wars began after the revolution and Napoleon's victories made him very popular at home.
He led a military expedition to Egypt and when he returned to France found the Directory, then the governing committee of the country, in disarray. Napoleon had great enthusiasm for the French Revolution but then betrayed it's ideals by using his popularity to seize absolute power. His seizure of power marked the end of the active phase of the French Revolution.
NAPOLEON REALLY CHANGED THE WORLD
Although Napoleon may be seen as betraying the ideals of the French Revolution by seizing absolute power from the chaos in it's aftermath, he did spread those ideals across Europe. The revolution is now considered as the beginning of the modern political era. One of the creations of the revolutionaries was the Metric System. Napoleon's enthusiasm for it is why the world is using it now.
This set a pattern that has been seen over and over again ever since. A king will be overthrown, in the hope of freedom, but what will emerge out of it is a powerful leader wearing a military uniform.
What must be remembered about America is that the king and queen of France were it's first allies, and that helped it to gain independence. The U.S. has always harbored resentment of the bloody revolution that overthrew and guillotined it's close allies. This is why it was so slow to accept the Metric System.
How many national leaders that are copies of Napoleon, according to the above pattern, has America been at odds with? Castro, Noriega, Gaddafi, Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Stalin, Hitler. But Napoleon did sell the Louisiana Purchase to America so he could concentrate on Europe. Charles De Gaulle was very reminiscent of Napoleon, except that he was tall.
Napoleon set the precedence for the modern dictator, although I don't think he was harsh or cruel by the standards of the Twentieth Century. What is interesting is that Napoleon wasn't born in France, he was born in Corsica, and this set the precedence for Germany to be ruled by Hitler, who was born in Austria, and Russia to be ruled by Stalin, who was born in Georgia.
His conquests, particularly the Battle of Austerlitz, brought the Holy Roman Empire to an end, which had existed for over a thousand years. The Arc de Triomphe is to commemorate the victory at Austerlitz. It could be considered as the tombstone of the Holy Roman Empire. This is my photo. The man in red had an instamatic camera and was offering to take photos of people in front of the arch, for a fee.
The smaller and earlier Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is also to commemorate Napoleon's victories. It forms an axis with the Arc de Triomphe. Image from Google Street View.
Nearby is La Madeleine. It is now a Catholic church but was originally a temple dedicated to the glory of Napoleon's army. Images from Google Street View and Earth.
Napoleon must have been something special because his tomb is in a cathedral-like building that is one of the top attractions of Paris. Adolf Hitler made a special pilgrimage to visit Napoleon's tomb. His field of conquest ended up being almost identical to Napoleon's but Napoleon, unlike Hitler, actually captured Moscow. This is an enlargement of my photo showing the Tomb of Napoleon, as seen from the Eiffel Tower.
Napoleon had such charisma, and such a hold over his country, that, after finally being defeated and exiled on the island of Elba, not far from his native Corsica, he escaped from captivity and regained control of France. This is an absolutely amazing story.
Although the invasion of Russia would ultimately be a disaster could Napoleon have imagined that, just over a century later, there would be a revolution that would overthrow the Romanov tsars that would be virtually a mirror image of the French Revolution that ultimately resulted in him coming to power?
Napoleon was the catalyst that caused the many German-speaking states across central Europe to ultimately unite into one country. But the major new nation would upset the balance of power and engage in three major wars with Napoleon's France.
Napoleon's military expedition into Egypt was actually before he became leader of the country. It was what brought ancient Egypt into the world's consciousness. Through the Nineteenth and into the Twentieth Centuries there was a fascination with ancient Egypt across the world. His vast collection of art and artifacts, from his conquests, are what made the Louvre, formerly a royal palace, into possibly the greatest museum in the world.
The center of Paris is the Egyptian obelisk in Place Concorde. I positioned this photo to have the Eiffel Tower in the background. This obelisk is one of the three "Cleopatra's Needles", although they are from long before Cleopatra's time.
Aside from these direct influences of Napoleon there are two indirect influences that I would like to add. The first is that he was the indirect liberator of Latin America from colonial control, and the second is the influences of his nephew, known as Napoleon III or Louis Napoleon.
THE INDIRECT LIBERATION OF LATIN AMERICA
Let's start by reviewing Latin America.
The Imperial Age began with the landing of Christopher Columbus in the western hemisphere. The initial major Spanish settlement was on the island of Hispaniola. The island is today shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Santo Domingo is the oldest city in the hemisphere.
The Spanish conquests in the western hemisphere, against the native Indians, revolved around several high-profile leaders, known as "conquistadors". The two best-known conquistadors are Hernan Cortes, who conquered the Aztecs in what is now Mexico, and Francisco Pizarro, Cortes' cousin who conquered the Inca in what is now Peru. Christopher Columbus thought he had reached his destination of India, and incorrectly referred to the native people of the western hemisphere as "Indians".
The conquest stories of Cortes and Pizarro are strikingly similar. This took place in the early Sixteenth Century.
Cortes led an expedition that left Cuba for Mexico. At the last minute the Governor of Cuba ordered the expedition to be halted, but Cortes ignored the order. Cortes landed, and left some soldiers, at what is now Veracruz. The Aztecs were the dominant Indian nation of Mexico but was generally oppressive toward the others. Cortes' force first clashed with the Tlaxcalans, but Cortes managed to persuade them to join him against the Aztecs.
At first relations with the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma II, were friendly. The Spanish and Tlaxcalan force stayed in Montezuma's palace as guests. Montezuma saw that the Spaniards valued gold, and gave them some, but that only convinced them there must be more where that came from. It ended with Cortes taking Montezuma hostage and governing through him. Montezuma was killed, either by Cortes for refusing to cooperate further, or stoned to death by his own people.
"Montezuma" is also spelled "Moctezuma".
At one point Cortes received a messenger from the soldiers left on the coast that a force of Spaniards had landed to arrest him for his earlier disobedience of orders. Cortes took some of the soldiers with him and defeated them, and then persuaded them to join him.
But while Cortes was away Pedro De Alvarado, who had been left in charge of the force at the palace, had killed a number of high-ranking Aztecs, resulting in being surrounded by an extremely hostile population. After Cortes returned it was decided to escape the palace at night. The escape was discovered and about two-thirds of the soldiers were killed. It became known as "Noche Triste", the "Sad Night".
The one thing that the Spaniards always had going for them is the number of enemies the Aztecs had made among the other Indian tribes. Cortes managed to convince many of them to join him. They returned to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, and this time the outcome would be different. They also unwittingly brought a deadly secret weapon with them. That secret weapon was smallpox, to which the Aztecs had no immunity.
Tenochtitlan became Mexico City, and Spain ruled Mexico for about three centuries. Cortes was later commissioned to explore northern Mexico and the Sea of Cortes, sometimes called the Gulf of California, was named for him.
Pizzaro, in Peru, has a very similar story. He was, if anything, more ruthless than Cortes.
Like Cortes the force led by Pizzaro was heavily outnumbered but managed to come along when there was conflict between Indians, in this case a civil war between the Inca leader Atahualpa and his brother Huascar.
Like Cortes Pizzaro took the Indian leader, Atahualpa, hostage. Also gold was a primary motivating factor. Pizarro told Atahualpa that he would be freed if he could have a room filled with gold and silver. The "Ransom Room" is still there. Atahualpa had the room filled as requested but was killed anyway.
Like Cortes the encounter with the Indians was friendly at first. But Pizzaro took the opportunity to massacre Atahualpa's guard. Like Cortes, Pizzaro became the founder of one of the great cities of the western hemisphere, Cortes of Mexico City and Pizzaro of Lima. The most important difference between Cortes and Pizarro is that Cortes later retired to Spain, although his body was eventually brought back to Mexico, while Pizzaro was killed by his own men in Peru.
Cortes and Pizarro were not the only famous conquistadors, although they are the best-known. Juan Ponce de Leon was the first to land in the U.S. St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in America. Francisco Coronado explored what is now the southwestern U.S., although he didn't find any cities made of gold. Hernando DeSoto explored the southeastern U.S., discovering the Mississippi River. His name is all over the United States and there was once a car named for him.
Three centuries later the situation was reversed. Latin America was liberated from Spanish control by what could be described as the "anti-conquistadors". There was Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in Mexico, Simon Bolivar, in northern South America, and Jose San Martin, in southern South America. There was a meeting between Bolivar and San Martin, in what is now Ecuador. It is not known what was said but San Martin retired and turned the struggle for freedom in South America over to Bolivar.
These three are credited with leading Latin America to independence. But there is a great story about the independence of the Latin American countries, in the early Nineteenth Century, that just doesn't get the attention it deserves. The real leader of independence in Latin America is Napoleon, although it was done inadvertently.
Napoleon conquered Spain. It was a costly campaign and Napoleon referred to it as his "Spanish Ulcer". Spain eventually regained it's freedom but never quite regained it's status as a colonial power. It was Napoleon's conquest of Spain that led it's colonies in the western hemisphere to seek independence. A weakened Spain tried to hold onto it's empire but only managed to retain the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Portugal, Spain's neighbor on the Iberian Peninsula, moved it's capital to Rio de Janeiro, in it's colony of Brazil, when threatened by Napoleon. This ultimately led to Brazil's independence.
While the battles for the independence of Latin America were going on, led by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Simon Bolivar, and Jose San Martin, little thought seems to have been given to another conqueror, in exile by that time on the island of St. Helena, between South America and Africa. It was Napoleon and he was the primary liberator of Latin America, with the others being secondary. There are statues of the others in Latin America but I can't see that there is one of Napoleon.
But what we should take note of is the current President of Argentina, Javier Milei. Physical resemblance can be important in politics. I have written here previously about the resemblance between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mahatma Gandhi, who spent a long time in South Africa, even though Tutu was African and Gandhi was Indian. The current Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, resembles the Soviet-era foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko. Silvio Berlusconi bore a resemblance to Benito Mussolini and, going by posture as well as facial resemblance, Boris Johnson could have been Winston Churchill's grandson.
With this in mind has anyone noticed the resemblance, particularly in stature, between Javier Milei and Napoleon? What has really allowed Milei to carry out this rightward economic revolution, that is completely uncharacteristic for Argentina which is known for leftward Peronism, is his resemblance to Napoleon, who is the indirect liberator of the country. It was when Napoleon conquered Spain that Argentina managed to seize independence.
NAPOLEON III
Napoleon III, also known as Louis Napoleon, was the nephew of Napoleon, and his story is another branch of the story of Napoleon. He ended up being the first president of France. The monarchy was restored after the time of Napoleon, but it was finished for good by the wave of revolutions that swept Europe in 1848.
When his presidential term was over he simply scrapped the constitution and declared himself emperor of France. Someone with a name like Napoleon isn't going to be held back by some silly constitution.
But Napoleon III accomplished something as Emperor that it is doubtful could have been done as president. He completely renovated Paris. The grand boulevards that we see today were built. The old Paris wasn't quite removed altogether. Some of the old streets became alleys between the new streets. The renovation is considered as a resounding success and is the prototype for urban renewal across the world.
The centerpiece of the renovation of Paris was the Opera House. This is what the play "The Phantom of the Opera" is about. I have not been inside but it is stunning from the outside. Images from Google Street View and Earth.
Names associated with Napoleon are everywhere. The first street in Paris to be renovated was Rue de Rivoli, named for one of Napoleon's victories. Image from Google Street View.
Thanks to this renovation by Napoleon III Paris is now the most imitated city in the world. Cities everywhere try to be like Paris.
Every part of the world has it's imitation of Paris. Beirut is billed as "the Paris of the Middle East", Dakar as "the Paris of Africa", Hanoi as "the Paris of the East", Montreal of North America and Buenos Aires of South America.
Napoleon III had another great building project. He built the Suez Canal. Can we imagine the world without it? The relationship between east and west would have been completely different because ships would have to go all the way around Africa.
Who does Napoleon III immediately remind you of? Your first answer would probably be Donald Trump. His talk of a third term, and of possibly not recognizing election results, is reminiscent of Napoleon III simply declaring himself as emperor when his presidential term was over. His letting go of thousands of government workers, and completely rearranging the economy, is reminiscent of Napoleon III tearing down the old Paris and building the magnificent city that we have today. His talk of reclaiming the Panama Canal evokes Napoleon III building the Suez Canal.
JOSEPH BONAPARTE
We don't hear much nowadays about the older brother of Napoleon, Joseph. He was an integral part of Napoleon's empire and, when it was all over, lived in the United States around New Jersey and Philadelphia. The plaque, in the following image from Google Street View, is in Philadelphia.
ADOLF HITLER
Adolf Hitler was certainly in the mode of Napoleon, and he knew it. Hitler made a special pilgrimage to visit Napoleon's tomb and his field of conquest was nearly the same as that of Napoleon. Like Napoleon, Hitler was a military leader who had replaced a king that had been overthrown, the Kaiser, although neither had anything to do with overthrowing the king and didn't replace him immediately.
France and Germany are both descended from the Franks. The Franks split into West Francia, Middle Francia and, East Francia. West Francia became France and East Francia became Germany. The relationship between the two can be seen in how Charlemagne, of the Carolingian Dynasty, moved his center of power from Paris to Aachen.
It was Napoleon's conquests that prompted the German-speaking states in central Europe to unite into a single nation. When Hitler's soldiers marched along Napoleon's Avenue de la Grande Armee, westward from his Arc de Triomphe, they were indicating that Hitler was picking up where Napoleon left off.
Napoleon and Hitler did differ in that it was the conquests of Napoleon that brought the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire to an end. The Nazis referred to themselves as the "Third Reich", with the Holy Roman Empire being the First and the time of the Kaisers being the Second. Charlemagne had been the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
An interesting thing that Napoleon and Hitler, as well as Josef Stalin, have in common is that they were possibly the three most powerful leaders of modern times but Napoleon wasn't French, Hitler wasn't German and, Stalin wasn't Russian. Napoleon was Corsican, Hitler was Austrian and, Stalin was Georgian. It shows again how Napoleon was the prototype of the modern dictator.
THE REHABILITATION OF JOSEF STALIN
Vladimir Lenin was the initial leader of the new Soviet Union, following the successful October Revolution of 1917 in which the Romanov Dynasty was overthrown. He was followed by Josef Stalin, who forcefully collectivized the economy and led the country to victory over the invading Nazis. Upon Stalin's death, in 1953, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, shocked the world by denouncing him and beginning a process of "De-stalinization".
But now, more than seventy years later, a rehabilitation of Josef Stalin seems to have begun. A statue of him was unveiled in the Moscow Metro.
The underlying reason why Stalin cannot just disappear into history is that he is the Soviet version of Napoleon. The campaign of Napoleon to conquer Russia was ultimately a failure. But it did spread the ideals of the French Revolution to Russia. Could Napoleon have imagined that, more than a century later, the Romanov Dynasty would be overthrown and executed in what would be nearly a mirror image of the French Revolution?
Ironically the Narva Arch in St. Petersburg, built to commemorate the victory over Napoleon (top image), very closely resembles Napoleon's own arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (bottom image). Both images from Google Street View.
In fact, I define the October Revolution as the first major reenactment of the French Revolution, with the Iranian Revolution of 1979 being the second. The French Revolution was primarily about politics, overthrowing the monarchy in favor of a republic. The October Revolution changed the direction to being primarily about economics, Communism against Capitalism. Both revolutions had been against religion but the Iranian Revolution changed the direction back toward religion.
Just as Napoleon was what eventually emerged from the French Revolution so Stalin was what eventually emerged from the October Revolution. Stalin is very much the Soviet counterpart of Napoleon. Just as Napoleon re-emerged in the form of his nephew, Napoleon III, so Stalin also had to re-emerge in this rehabilitation.
THE ANTICHRIST
If Napoleon is the prototype of the modern dictator and the future Antichrist will be the greatest dictator that the world has ever seen, then we might expect that there is some connection between the two.
We know that the Antichrist will declare himself to be God. While Napoleon is not known to have made any such declaration, there are some interesting parallels.
France, after the revolution, was officially a republic. But the First Republic came to an abrupt end when Napoleon amassed power and then simply declared himself as emperor.
Napoleon was crowned as Emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral. The Pope was present and held the crown. But instead of being crowned by the Pope, as Charlemagne had been, Napoleon took the crown from the Pope and put it on himself. There is a story that the Pope expected to do the coronation but Napoleon snatched the crown from him and put it on himself. But either way Napoleon showed that, while he recognized the church, he wasn't under it's authority.
A grand church had been under construction, as a focal point at the center of Paris. Napoleon took it over and turned it into a temple dedicated to the glory of his army. There is a prominent mural, called "The History of Christianity", and it shows Napoleon receiving something from the Pope. Napoleon has the crown already on his head.
This again shows Napoleon as above, or at least not below, the authority of the Church. After the time of Napoleon the Temple was made back into a Catholic Church, and is today known as La Madeleine. Two images from Google Street View.
In this image of the painting Napoleon is in the red robe, above the green dot, and the Pope is to his left.
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