HISTORY BY THE NUMBERS | 2006-05-02
When Napolean invaded Russia people assume that he was not only taking on a much larger country, but a much larger population.
It surprised me to discover that in 1812 the entire population of Russia was much smaller than that of France.
I always wondered why, when I read a history of Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was so much about France.
The reason is htat there were so many Frenchmen.
In 1800 France had by far the largest population in Europe. There were at least three times as many people in France as in England.
We are used to France being about the same population as the British Isles, and smaller than Germany. We are used to Russia dwarfing all of them.
My feeling for history is STILL out-of-kilter because of the modern numbers I am used to.