'In retrospect the Napoleonic adventure in France seems surprisingly devoid of permanent political effects: the map of Europe is not all that different before and after. But there is no denying the importance of the Napoleonic wars to the rest of the world.' Colin McEvedy in The Penguin Atlas of Modern History.

'It would perhaps have been more appropriate to label these two decades culminating in Waterloo the "First World War" than to so name the brief struggle of a hundred years later.' Alistaire Horne in the preface to Napoleon, Master of Europe 1805-1807.