Re: Napoleon
Napoleon also drafted many young peasants from Flanders, who didn't speak french and got killed because they failed to understand their french speaking officers. There's a Flemish literature about this.
(Belgium didn't exist by then).
There's also that episode, a little earlier : Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers!
(Other times, other customs)
The greatest thing we got from Napoleon was le Code Napoleon
(well, he didn't invent it, of course). Still very much used today!!
Raoul