If it had been Georgiana herself, she would certainly have used diplomatic means to make Turkey and Russia invade India, rather than have France send its own generals like Napoleoni, making its designs on India blatantly obvious.
What a long detour it was from France around the Cape of Good Hope to India. Why not go through Suez to the Red Sea instead? That was what Britain and the other nations feared.
West Africa had more than gold, ivory, and pepper; it also had the slave trade. Slaves captured by raiding parties in Africa were loaded onto ships in West Africa, then sent to Liverpool before sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. This formed a trade triangle. If Napoleon persisted in building the Suez Canal, he would break this trade and alter the shape of the world as well. The port of Marseille would flourish once more and become the busiest port in the Mediterranean, making Malta crucial.
This was the future Georgiana had designed for Toussaint Louverture. He could choose to free and liberate Saint-Domingue alone, or he could join the French army and ensure that no more trading fleets carried slaves out of all West Africa.
He would become a hero rather than a dictator, provided France's dictator agreed to the plan.
Napoleon had said he would abolish slavery in Saint-Domingue, but he had not said it would be abolished elsewhere. Slavery could not be eradicated completely in a short time; it would require the unceasing efforts of several generations.
Last year, Napoleon had drained the provinces dry and used the money to build defensive fortifications. He was guarding against Austria, the homeland of his future wife.
According to Catholic doctrine, a divorce without the Pope's recognition was illegal. In other words, his marriage to the Austrian princess would