Currently watching a history of Europe video and this is the map of the year 1812: https://imgur.com/a/phS6RoN , is this real? Why are the borders like that, what's going on?
It's an attempt to show the path of the invasion of Russia, but it's done poorly. It seems to imply that the areas behind the Grande Armee's advance were part of the Duchy of Warsaw which was not the case - there was the usual rear area military administration (hospitals, supply depots etc.) but the territory wasn't administratively integrated in any way. The shape of the advance is also way off - there was a broad advance across the Niemen river with the main part of the army concentrating at Smolensk and then marching on a narrow front towards Moscow. There were smaller forces on the flanks of the army that aren't shown there - Macdonald's X Corps towards Riga, II and VI Corps under Oudinot (and then St. Cyr) holding Polotsk in the North and VII Corps (Reynier) and the Austrian Corps under Schwarzenburg south of the Pripyat marshes. From watching the video, it's trying to show territorial changes for the full span of European history, but it's odd that it shows the army movement in 1812, but nothing in 1805, 1806, 1809, 1813 etc.
There's also other issues I can see from just that one year:
· Swedish Pomerania is shown as part of Prussia, it was Swedish until 1815
· The French department of Bouches-de-l'Elbes extends too far into Denmark - it shouldn't include the modern district of Ostholstein
· Jersey and Guernsey are shown as part of France (and are still shown that way in 2017)
· The Kingdom of Italy is marked as the Republic of Italy
· It shows Lucca as separate to France, but not Piombino - they were a joint state ruled by Elisa Bonaparte.
· The Ionian Islands (Corfu etc.) are shown as part of the Ottoman Empire - they were ceded to France by Russia under the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. The Southern-most islands were occupied by Britain.
· Switzerland is... not good. The Canton of Valais is shown as part of the Helvetic Republic - it was independent as the Rhodanic Republic between 1802 and 1810, at which point it was annexed to France. Neuchatel should also be shown as independent. The Canton of Jura should be part of France at this point, it was only ceded to Switzerland in 1815. The Canton of Ticino was occupied by the Kingdom Italy from 1810. Geneva is shown as being part of Switzerland after 1815, but as part of France between 1648-1815 rather than as part of Switzerland.
· The population figures show the Papal States which hadn't existed since 1808.
· The population figures are also missing quite a few states: Italy, Naples, the Confederation of the Rhine (or even its individual constituents), Warsaw and Switzerland, all of which are larger than Sicily and Sardinia. They're not included in the French Empire number - that's correct for France proper.