I’ve only ever had one class that covered the Napoleonic wars in depth, and it was when I took a course on War and Peace in university. Of course, you can imagine how it was taught in that class; we were just given a bit of historical context to understand the novel.

Now, I understand in Europe Napoleon is widely vilified and I’m sure in many countries this era is taught with a strong anti-French bias. So, if you’re asking with what bias they teach us in America, I can assure you Americans don’t give two shits either way about this particular bit of history and the way they teach it to us is very much neutral. Napoleon is not widely vilified or celebrated here, and 99% of people have no idea about the actual history except that a short French guy froze his nuts off in Russia. The fact that it wasn’t until university that I ever really learned much about the Napoleonic wars shows how little it resonates in the American mind.

In the Minnesota public school system, we had a single year of world history in high school. This was the only history class that wasn't chiefly concerned with American history. As the remit of this course was to cover the entirety of recorded history, from the first human civilizations to the modern day, the time spend on the Napoleonic Wars was minimal. As I recall, it was mentioned very broadly in relation to the many conflicts between colonial empires in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that's about it. Any specifics were more around the French Revolution, and then maybe making sure you were aware of the burning of Moscow and the Battle of Waterloo.

Outside that year of world history, Britain's conflicts with France come up as they relate to US history. So the 7 Years War (or as we Americans know it, the French and Indian Wars), French assistance in the American War of Independence, and then some oblique acknowledgement that the only reason we weren't thrashed in the War of 1812 was that Britain had bigger fish to fry.

I love the Napoleonic Wars and especially Napoleon I know that can be controversial. As far as learning anything about them in public schools you don’t really get to know much unless it is attached to American history in which it overlaps on 2 occasions.

So we obviously learn about the Louisiana Purchase and know that Napoleon sold it to fund wars.

The second instance is the War of 1812 which we don’t generally cover much as is but we know the British impressed US citizens to serve in the Royal Navy and we had a war over that. It was not full all out as well because the British had their hands full in another war in Europe.

That basically is the extent of Napoleonic War coverage we get.