> you skipped over. Arguably, comment forms on online fora don't provide much affordances for writing college grade essays. Neither will the audience read long

> you skipped over. Arguably, comment forms on online fora don't provide much affordances for writing college grade essays. Neither will the audience read long comments start-to-end. I was well aware of how much I left out for the sake of terseness and staying on topic. While the Napoleonic Wars left several million dead over the course of 12 years, Europe itself counted a population of 160 million at the time. Depending on who you were, your experience may have vastly differed. Millions lived in poverty and remained living in poverty, tens thousands emigrated to the New World or within Europe, and then there were plenty who seized the opportunity to acquire wealth (small and large) and power during that time through commerce and new opportunities on a local, regional and/or international level. That doesn't downplay the horrible experiences related to early 19th century warfare: it's adding important nuance to life in Europe as it was. I'm calling the "societal collapse" hyperbole because I was aware of it lacked that nuance. Alternatively, I could have called called it "societal disruption on macro level" or some such. But again, online fora do not make for a great medium catering to nuanced historiography about the experience of living in early 19th century Europe. It's also pretty much off-topic as this discussion is about leftover vestiges of the Ancien Régime in modern legal systems.